The vanishing fog
by riddlefiddleai
Summary: People are vanishing in a strange island in Okinawa. There folk tales come alive and legends kill. There Naru and Mai faces their biggest challenge yet.
1. Boat and sea sickness

This would be my 2nd ghost hunt fan fic, it is not a sequel...I do not like sequels

Characters

Mai

Masako

Narumi

Bou-san

Ayako

Lin

Yasuhara

John

The characters do not belong to me, the anime too does not

The story does

**Prologue**

The boy stood at the edge of the cliff. The cliff was above the crashing waves of the Japan Sea. The wind was strong and his head ruffled wildly around him. He was staring at the sea, biting his lips. Night was coming and a thick mist was covering the sea in a distance. He had never seen anything like this before.

The mist was thickening and it was coming towards the cliff the boy was standing. It was a thick white mist. A mist without any form or shape. It was just a swirling mass. The stories the boy was told when he was just a little one replayed in his mind. He trembled in fear. He could not run, his feet were glued to the ground. The mist came faster and faster. Soon the boy could not see the sea; the mist covered the rolling waves.

A wave crashed at the side of the cliff. The boy dropped to his knees. The mist was almost upon him. Singing...a soft singing came from the mist. The voice wasn't comforting, it wasn't at all. The boy scrambled backwards. Strength rushed back into his legs and he turned to run. He turned and a scream escaped his lips.

Then he was gone. The mist covering the cliff and disappearing. The singing still lingering. For an instant, amidst the mist, a lone figure could be seen pushing the boy of the cliff.

The vanishing fog

File 1#

Boat and sea sickness

Mai leaned on the cold metal railing of the small fisherman boats. She hurled into the ocean, the vile liquid of puke escaped her lips and landed into the white frothy waves. Mai wiped her lips with a tissue paper. She turned to the boy standing beside her. He had paled skin, short black hair and unnatural red eyes. He obviously did not have sea sickness. Mai pointed a shaking finger at him. "Why are we here?" she asked him accusingly. She forced down another puke forming in her gut, coughing. "Why are we HERE?" she shouted. Naru turned to face her. His cold unnerving gaze sending irritation down Mai's spine.

"We have a case." He said.

"In the middle of the ocean!" Mai shouted before turning again and puking into the ocean. The boy showed no expression. "Yes, our client insists that we meet him on that small Island there." Naru said. Mai raised her head up from the ocean weakly and found herself staring an Island. It was a huge Island.

"I hope his paying, big bucks." Mai muttered. She did not deserve to be puking. Naru shrugged, and drunk tea from a paper cup. That snob, here she was puking and he was drinking in front of her. This was going to be a hellish trip.

*

Lin was Naru's tall assistant. He was like Naru, cold and had no expression. He was sitting next to the equipment apparently protecting it from the crashing waves. Masako was Naru's god know what, she was a girl, 16 years of age and extremely irritating, to Mai. She had supernatural abilities though and had some shared experiences with Mai. Ayako was a self-pronounced priest and was quarrelling with Masako who apparently refused to let Ayako sit inside the cabin. Ayako was somewhat the oldest in the group, even if she does not admit it.

Then there was Bou-san, a monk who was waiting on the island with Yasuhara-san. Yasuhara-san was the only normal human in the group and a university student. They met during a case long ago. Although he was the only normal one he was pretty helpful. He agreed to help out on this case; apparently it was a very big one.

Naru had not released the details of the case yet. He would do so once they met their mysterious client. Three days ago, Naru received a phone call from a mysterious man. Naru spent hours in his office talking to the man and when he finished Naru asked for Mai to start packing her suit case. Seems they would be going to one of the Islands in Okinawa.

All Mai knew was that, the client owned the island.

John stood beside Mai. He handed another tissue paper to Mai when she puked into the ocean again. "Thank you." She said weakly to the priest. John was Christian and was the most helpful exorcist out of the three and apparently the kindest.

He was the only one that bothered about Mai's sea sickness.

The island was looming closer and Mai could see some houses stretched out at the edge of the Island. The boat suddenly stopped and Naru turned to the fisherman who drove the boat. "Why did you stop?" he asked the fisherman. Mai turned and found that the fisherman was shivering. Mai frowned.

When they first arrived at Okinawa air port there was no fisherman who wanted to take them to the Island. They all seemed afraid somehow of this Island. To Mai though it seemed pretty normal. It looked normal so it must be normal.

"This is madness." The fisherman said. "Why do you want to go to that Island?"

"You promised to take us there and that is that." Naru replied without answering. The fisherman trembled and started the engine again. He caught Mai's gaze and Mai saw fear in his eyes. "Just..." the fisherman said before shaking his head and looking at his watch.

Why was the fisherman so obsessed with time? When he agreed to fetched them he rushed them to the boat very quickly and throughout the journey he had been travelling at full speed. Mai looked at her watch. It was only 4 in the afternoon. Why was the man rushing for?

The boat bounced again and Mai moaned, her sea sickness coming again. This time it seems that the boat was travelling faster at dangerous speeds.

The Island came into view and it looked beautiful, with lush green tropical forest, white sandy beaches. Mai could see some small towns on the Island. The boat turned and the forest disappeared and a cliff appeared in sight.

"Look at the cliff, it's so tall!" John exclaimed. Mai looked and was amazed. It was tall and completely made out of a pure white shining stone. "Limestone." Naru said when he saw Mai smiling.

Mai's smile vanished almost immediately. "I know that." She said. She didn't of course but she didn't need that idiot to know that. The cliff disappeared from view and the boat came to an abrupt halt. They were at a small port.

"Off, quickly get off my boat." The fisherman said. Mai glanced at him, irritated.

"What is your problem!?" she asked the guy. The fisherman glanced at her.

"Beware." He said.

Mai raised her eyebrow. "Of the fog." He whispered. Mai stumbled onto the port and the fisherman started the boat almost immediately and went off.

"Well, that was a nice man." Masako said with sarcasm, dusting her kimono. She places her sleeve over her nose.

"And what a strange place." She whispered.

"Shall we head to our client house now?" Naru asked. Lin nodded picking out the equipment and the team followed Naru.

The Island was silent.


	2. The client

Sorry for the long wait. My computer broke down on me and EXAMS ARE STUPID.

The vanishing fog

File 2#

The client

"It should be around here." Lin told Naru. There had been trudging up a steep slope for the past 2 hours and still there was no one in sight. "It is there!" John shouted from behind them, he pointed up the slope and they saw it.

Mai almost stumbled in awe. There on top of the slope stood the biggest house she had ever seen. It was so big, its pointed roof seemed like it was touching the sky. "That is not a house." Ayako exclaimed. "It's a frigging castle!" Mai shouted, completing Ayako's sentence.

From this angle, Mai could see that it was completely made out of bricks, red and gray bricks. The windows were huge and the metal fence surrounding the castle was taller than a giraffe. "Who lives in there?" John whispered beside Mai.

"Only one." Naru said and he began trudging up the slope again.

They found Bou-san and Yasuhara-san both standing in front of the huge castle like house; they were waving and beckoning them. Mai squinted and was intrigued. There was a boy about her age standing behind the two men. Mai turned and found Naru frowning when he saw the boy.

"Yo, Mai!" Bou-san said wringing his arm around Mai's neck and rubbing her hair. "What's wrong Mai, you don't look too hot." He said.

"She was puking, you might bit want to touch her." Masako said walking past Bou. Bou-san quickly released Mai from his grip and Mai punched him on his shoulder and he laughs. Yasuhara-san greeted her and when she pointed to the boy Yasuhara-san nodded.

"This is Genta Hatori, he lead us here." Yasuhara-san said. The boy looked at the team and smiled at them. "Nice to meet you." He said. Mai smiled at him and shook his hand. Well, he seemed nice enough not like Naru and Masako who stared at the boy in disdain. Genta looked a little uncomfortable.

"Shall we proceed?" Naru asked and Mai sighed. "Yes, yes." She said and they rang the doorbell. They waited for a few seconds when the giant gates swung open inward slowly and a man stood at the entrance of the door. He was a fat man and he wore a black formal suit.

"I am guessing that is our client, yes?" Masako said and walked towards the main oak wood doors of the huge castle like house. Now that they were closer Mai realises how big it actually was. It was huge, if you compared the Tokyo dome to this; this was definitely bigger, if Tokyo dome was an elephant than this was a blue whale.

Mai and Bou-san stood in front of the castle gawping at it. Massive towers loomed over the main building, the roof of the towers sharp and pointy. The main building was shorter compared to the towers, it had a roman like structure and a green dome shaped roof. The window frames were bronze in colour and covered in dust.

"I am getting quite an ominous feeling." Bou-san said, cupping his hand to his chin.

"You don't need to tell me that." Mai said, looking at the dome shape roof. She was getting mixed feelings, strange sad feelings. She shook her head and pulled Bou-san. They caught up with Naru and they found themselves at the main door.

The fat man who opened the door for them was staring at them. He looked at all of them before smiling and waving them into the house. "My master awaits you." He said. Naru raised his eye brows. "Who might you be?" he asked. The fat man smiled. "Just your humble butler."

The butler shut the heavy doors behind them and immediately it was dark. The butler light up a candle and dim light flittered out from the candle. Red carpets covered the ground, portraits of different people hung on the wall. Doors lined the corridor that they were now standing in and at the end of the corridor was a huge golden door.

"Why do I feel like I have been transported back into time?" Mai whispered to Bou-san who giggled and was immediately silenced by Naru's glare.

"Just like an English man's house." Yasuhara-san said. "This man knows quite a lot about the Victorian culture." He continued and walked.

"You are happy." Mai said and he nodded. "History is vastly amazing isn't it?" He said, his eyes couldn't contain the excitement. Mai nodded and they walked on as the butler led them through the corridor.

"My master hates lights, so please refrain from using your torchlight's or any light devices in this place." The butler said.

"What a creepy guy." Ayako said to John who laughs nervously.

"Silence." Masako scolded. They neared the golden door and Mai gasped. "I thought it was fake." She said.

"I assure you its hundred percent pure gold." The butler said laughing. He blew on his candle and the fire went out. The corridor plunges into darkness and then he opened the golden doors. There were slight creaking noises and then Mai covered her eyes.

It was bright; the room behind the golden door was very bright.

'Welcome!' a warm voice greeted them. Mai looked up blinking, her eyes hurting and there in front of her she saw an old man sitting on a wheel chair. He had a long white beard and wore a formal black suite. "Ok, weird." Ayako whispered to Mai. The old man sat underneath a huge chandelier. The huge chandelier was giving out golden rays of bright light.

"Good evening Mr Rei-san." Naru gritted politely.

"These are my assistants, Mai and Lin, the others are fellow exorcist." Naru said. The old man regarded them and Mai gulped. He was blind; Mai could see that, his eyes had a faint cloudy colour. It had no life in them.

"Welcome, welcome, to my humble island, how was the reception?" he asked them.

"Horri-"Ayako was about to say it when Bou-san slapped his hand over her mouth. "It was very good." Naru answered.

"Do you want to get us all sued!" Bou-san seethed at the woman who slapped his hand away and glared at him. "I am a frank woman." she said and Bou-san snorted.

"Well very well, please take a seat, Williams, please make us some tea." The old man spoke. The butler moved. Williams?

"His European!" Mai exclaimed before slapping her own hand over her mouth. The old man chuckled. "Who are you little one?" he asked. Mai blushed, "Mai, Mai Taniyama." She said. The old man nodded. "You're a lively one, aren't you." He said. Mai rubbed her head in embarrassment.

"Well, not really." She said.

"Williams is not European, he is just Williams." The old man said. Mai frowned and Masako nudges her.

"Can we start now? Naru is giving you quite a glare." She said. Mai turned and found Naru glaring at her. "So what are we here for?" she asked the old man and Naru returned his gaze to the old client. The old man's smile vanished and Mai felt the room drop two degrees colder.

"We have many legends around here, so many it is impossible to tell them all in a life time, therefore I would only tell you one."

"What has that got to do with anything?" Mai asked again and the old man turned towards her. Mai winced. Even though he was blind Mai felt that he could see her and it was a scary thought. "My people from the village below are vanishing, one by one. It happened suddenly; they each disappeared without any trace."

Mai gulped and noticed Masako turning her attention to the golden doors.

"We had some disappearance here and there, it wasn't very frequent but over the past few weeks people had disappeared in masses." He said. "Little children for the matter are disappearing faster...that is why it reminded me of an old folk lore my grandmother used to tell me when I was young."

"Why not contact the police?" Naru asked. The old man shook his head. "We have asked four police scout teams to help us but the search was to no avail, my people are nowhere to be found."

"They just vanished." Williams whispered, pouring a cup of tea and handling it to Lin who accepted it. "However each vanishing had a pattern...and that is why we decided to call you...we have heard about the famous medium Masako and the Shibuya Psychic centre after that case in Minamiyamashiro."

"It always happens in the evening and always in a strange magical fog that disappears almost as quickly as it comes."

"The folk lore." Naru said and the old man nodded.

"It has been passed down through generations; the story was one of the most famous out of the whole lot."

"So it is connected?" John said. The old man nodded and spoke.

"_There was once a woman her name was Shiho Eri, she was a very beautiful woman, her skin white as snow, her small petite face as beautiful and radiant as the sun. Everyone in the region knew her, the men feel in love with her on sight, the woman dream of being like her. Shiho Eri was not only beautiful she had a strong sprit. She lived alone on top of a tall hill. There she worked on her farm growing pale Chrysanthemums on her plot of land. She worked hard on her land. She loved her flowers more than herself, she loved them more than any other man and therefore she was given a nick name. Hana Onna. Her Chrysanthemums were the brightest and biggest. They were her fruits of labour. It earned her fame and fortune. Soon many war lords flocked to see her, the beautiful woman and her pristine flowers._

_At that time there was a war lord. He was said to have ruled his people with kindness and justice. He was a good man they said. He wasn't. He was cruel, vile and wicked, his people suffered and he ruled with no justice. He was anything but good. The war lord had heard of Hanna Onna and his heart earns for her. Her flowers had captivated him; the stories of her beauty motivated him. So with a crew of 5 men he boarded his ship and they sailed towards her Island, her home. _

_When they reached the shore the villages welcomes him and his men. They drank and danced and at night he left his men. The war lord walked up the hill, his heart pounding in his chest. What was this feeling? This feeling of dread? He had asked himself. He was feeling sick; he didn't want to see her, but why? Still with these feelings he carried on. His legs taking him towards the hill. It was as if he was possessed. He wanted to see her and yet he didn't want too. What brought about these feelings? He had reached the top of the hill and there standing in the middle of the yellow blooming flowers underneath the moonlight was a white fox. _

_A fox? The war lord thought. A fox of white so close here? He thought. He walked closer to the fox and the fox turned. It was as white as snow. It saw the war lord and bared its teeth. Blood dripped from its jaw. The war lord was terrified and without thinking he swung his sword and cut off the fox head. The fox gave a yowl and its head fell to the ground the blood staining the yellow Chrysanthemums. They turned red and the war lord screamed as the headless body of the fox started to morph, it turned to that of a woman. The war lord trembled as he turned too looked at the fox head, it was the woman. Hanna Onna. He screamed in terror and dropped his sword as white smoke started to emerge from the woman's broken neck. The fog swirled and turned around the war lord. _

"_You have killed me." the fog whispered. There was a sharp hissing sound and before he knew it the war lord was gone. _

_The next morning the war lord's four men went in search of their leader. They climbed the hill and noticed that their leader's sword lay in the middle of red Chrysanthemum flowers. He was nowhere to be found._

_They searched with the help of the villages, they searched for a long time and when the sun set they headed back home. He had vanished; he was nowhere to be found. They were willing to ask the empress for help._

_When they arrived back home, they were astounded. Their city was in flames, their people had all died. The city was covered in red Chrysanthemum. _

_When the fires had been taken care of the four men returned back to the village where their leader had gone missing. When they reached the village they knew that something wrong had happen. The village was covered in a silky white fog. Everywhere, the houses were empty, the people were gone. They were nowhere to be seen._

_They had vanished. "_

The old man stopped and looked up.

"Williams..." he said and Williams nodded.

"We have every right to believe that the story is true, we need your help." Williams said. He approached Naru and from his pocket retrieved a small flower. "Only on this Island would you be able to find something like this..." he whispered.

He placed the flower in Naru's finger tips. It was a red Chrysanthemum...

"We fear that the folk lore..."

"Is coming true."


	3. Folktales aren't real until proven

Let the horror begin!!!

The vanishing fog

File 3#

Folktales aren't real until proven

"Well it is a typical case." Bou-san said to Mai as they walked out of the giant castle like house. William was walking in front of them. They were being led towards a hotel inn in which William said was the best in Okinawa.

"What do you mean?" Mai whispered to the monk. Bou-san raised both his hand in front of him and shook his head. "People are sometimes deluded by folk tales, when they see something supernatural they immediately try to link something to something else in order to explain the strange phenomenon happening to them." he said.

"But, he went as far as to call us here...he wouldn't do that if it was a hallucination would he?" Yasuhara-san suddenly added from behind them. Mai and Bou-san both jumped and Yasuhara-san laughed. "That scared you." He said. Mai and Bou-san sighed.

"In certain ways more than one, Yasuhara is worst to deal with than Naru." Bou-san whispered to Mai. Mai had to agree to that. At least Naru was silent most of the time. Yasuhara-san was different. She turned and found Genta, the boy earlier following them. Mai decided to walk beside him.

"Hello." Mai said to him. The boy turned shocked and when he saw her he smiled.

"Are you from this Island Genta?' Mai asked, trying to start a small talk. "Well, yes, most of my life, my father moved here 15 years ago." he said. Mai grinned. "Eh, that means you have lived here for 15 years...that's a pretty long time." She said.

"Taniyama-san, how old are you?" Genta asked suddenly. Mai paused and hesitated for a moment. "If I told you I was 34 what would you do?" she asked cheekily. Genta grinned. "I would jump off the cliff, right over there." He said, pointing west. Mai turned and sure enough there was the cliff they had seen earlier.

"Whoa...that is pretty tall." Mai said.

"It's the pride of the town." Genta said, his eyes sparkling. "It's our landmark."

"You really love your town don't you?" Mai said and Genta smiled. "Yes, very much so, it is very unique you see, I can't imagine living anywhere else."

"I'm 16." Mai said and Genta laughs. "Well, I'm 16 too." he said.

"I'm surprised though," Genta continued. "I didn't you all were ghost busters."

"Ghost busters he says." Masako said appearing behind Mai and Genta. They jumped and Mai resisted the urge to punch the girl. "If there is anyone behind me and planning to shock me again with the 'behind' surprise attack, please inform me right now!" Mai said irritated. Masako ignored Mai and held her kimono sleeve to her nose.

Mai frowned. "What is wrong Masako, you don't seem too good." Mai asked the girl. Masako ignored Mai and turned to face Genta. "We are not ghost busters, we are past that, I am an exorcist and so is everyone around here, we are professionals, please if you are only here out of curiosity please go back to your village." she said. Before turning away. Genta looked at her shocked.

"Who is she, does she hate me?" he asked Mai. Mai sighed, "No, she doesn't hate you, she just has a very weird way of expressing herself." Genta started to laugh and he returned his gaze to the cliff.

"Just a few months back everything was going fine, the tourist was starting to flock into this town and things were starting to get lively again...than this must happen..."

"Huh...you mean something happened before?" Mai asked. Genta snapped his gaze back at her and stop walking he seemed shock somehow. "You mean you do not know?" he asked.

"No, I don't know." Mai said and even Masako who was walking slowly in front of them stopped to listen as Genta spoke next.

"There was gas explosion that cased a huge fire in this town...we lost many lives to the fire and it ruined many property, we only begun to recover one year ago...when Mr Rei took over the governance."

"And that is something you do not need to know." A voice spoke behind them making Mai jumped again. This time she turned with her fist raised and found herself staring at a smiling William. The big man had his arms open and was moving them towards the inn.

"Genta tell your parent we need some vegetables for the inn." He told the boy, who tensed and hesitated before nodding and running.

"Stop scaring me!" she said and Masako snorted.

******************************************************************************************************************

"At least the service here is good." Ayako said as she dressed into her kimono. She had just taken a nice long hot bath. Mai couldn't agree better with her. The hostess and host here were polite and good.

"Dinner would be served in 30 minutes." A young girl about Mai's age called to them and they nodded. "Well, Mai it's your turn to use the hot bath."

"About time." Mai grumbled and Masako followed her into the bath room.

"Why must we both bath together?" Masako grumbled pulling off her clothes and slowly sliding into the hot bath gracefully. Mai leapt into the bath and splashed water all over Masako's face. "You are a monkey, those monkeys that takes hot baths with people in the mountainous areas." She said, rubbing the water out of her eyes. Mai ignored her.

"I'm in a good mood, don't spoil it." She said.

"How are you feeling?" Masako asked suddenly. Mai turned to face the girl, questions forming in her head. Why would she ask Mai how she felt?

"Better than you anyway." Mai said.

Masako hmphed and washed herself gently. "You behave like some rich young lady." Mai said watching as Masako bathed herself. "I am a rich young lady."

"Well sorry for being poor." Mai said pouting.

"Will you stop staring at me bath, you are worst than a pervert!" Masako demanded.

"I am not a guy, why would I want to stare at you little breast!" Mai shouted.

"Will you keep it down; the guys are trying to bath here!" Bou-san's voice shouted from the other end. Masako blushed deeply and Mai laughs.

"You animal." Masako seethes.

"You brought it upon yourself." Mai said before rinsing herself.

"Do you believe in folktales Mai?" Masako asked. Mai turned to face the girl. Before placing her hand on her chin. Now that Masako asked her that she didn't really know what to say. "There are urban legends...aren't folk tales like urban legend, people forming things they can't explain into stories."

Masako seemed paused for a moment before placing her hand over her nose. "Masako what's wrong?" Mai asked.

"I feel a bit-"

The lights of the bath room went off. Mai tensed and so did Masako. It was dark and they could not see.

"Masako..." Mai whispered and Masako gripped onto Mai's hand. They both shifted closer to each other in the bath tub. Mai turned her gaze to the entrance of the bathroom. It was too quiet. It was definitely too quiet.

"Ayako!" she called and her voice echoed through the darkness of the toilet. There was no answer from the older woman. Masako began to tremble. "Masako what's wrong, you have been acting weird since the start of the trip?" Mai asked the girl. Masako turned to Mai. "Mai do you smell it...the smell of fire." She whispered. "The fire..."

"Masako calm down, ok...there is no fire there is no smo-"

Mai stopped she covered her nose with her hands. It hurt, her nostrils were stinging. There was definitely the smell of smoke.

"Let's get out of here!" Mai said to Masako.

Before they could move, Mai felt something brush past her side in the bath water. Mai tensed and Masako gripped her tighter. They felt another brush. Mai held herself. It's got to be nothing. There was nothing in the bath water. It was imagination. It must be Masako's naked body brushing against hers that's all. A cold finger brushed her side again and Mai shivered. She couldn't move, fear had taken over.

Something was moving in the bath water.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw a figure sitting beside her. She turned quick and found a girl sitting beside her. The girl was completely pale and silent; she was visible and seemed to glow in the darkness. The girl was not staring at Mai; instead she was staring at the main door of the toilet. "Mai..." Masako whispered. Mai turned stiffly and felt the girl behind her shifting her gaze. Her gaze boring into Mai's back.

"On the count of three..." Masako whispered and Mai nodded.

The girls' gaze was boring. She couldn't see the girl but she knew the girl was glaring at her. Black hollow eyes, eyes full of fury.

"One..." Masako whispered.

The girl was edging closer towards Mai, not making any sound, but the water currents in the bath tub was getting colder and colder by the minute.

"Two..." Masako said.

Mai couldn't wait any longer. She leapt out of the bath water, pulling Masako along. A sharp pain went through her leg and she collapsed on the floor.

She heard a rasped, felt Masako pulling her up and they burst out of the bathroom. They slammed the doors shut behind them and faced a very stunned Ayako, who had dropped her finished Milk bottle onto the floor.

"What is going on?" she asked, before gasping. She was staring at Mai's leg. Mai turned too and sank to the ground in pain.

There was blood on her legs, a deep gash running through her thigh to her knees.

There was a loud bang as something slammed against the bathroom door behind them. a hand mark plastered itself onto the frosted window screen on the door. Ayako placed both her fingers together and started to chant. Then there was silence.

It was gone...for now...whatever it is.


	4. The code on the leg

Let's dive deeper into the mystery...and hopefully I can sort out what I wrote too.

The vanishing fog

File 4#

The code on the leg

"That is terrible." Ayako gasped as she inspected Mai's bloody thigh. She then grabs a first-aid kit from the inn's table and pulled out a bandage and some anti-septic. "This would hurt a bit but bear with it."

"Does it hurt, Mai?" Masako asked. Mai was about to retort to the girl's stupid question but stopped herself when she saw how worried Masako was. "It's over now, and I've experience worst than this." She answered instead.

"Anyway, putting Mai's injury aside, what happened?'

Ayako asked as she dabbed at Mai's leg would frantically. Masako gulped and began to explain. Mai listened and begun to shiver. Ayako patted Mai and hugged her. "It's alright now."

"Anyway we need to tell Naru about this." Ayako said but Mai held her. "No, we should not..."

"But..." Ayako protested.

"Please Ayako...I don't want anybody to worry." Mai answered. Ayako sighed and patted Mai's head. "You know sometimes, it's alright to be a little selfish." She said before signalling for them to slip into their kimono. "It's time for dinner; we'll discuss the situation in the toilet after that."Mai smiled, at times like these Ayako really sounded like a mother. She glanced quickly at the bathroom door before slipping quickly into her kimono. Her heart beating in her chest rapidly. For a moment there she thought she saw a figure standing behind the bathroom door.

************************************************************************************************************

"The night is young!" Bou-san shouted before grabbing Yasuhara-san's neck and both men chugged down a bottle of sake.

Masako stared at the two of them in disdain. Naru and Lin ate silently ignoring the din the other two was making. John was on the ground, his face red. He was drunk. Mai drank some apple juice before placing a delicious steam hot snow crab into her mouth. It melted and she smiled. She caught Naru glancing at her at a few times, but she ignored it.

"Taniyama-chan!"

Mai turned and smiled. There was Genta he was sitting outside their dinner room and he carried a pear in his palm. "Would you care to try some of these?" he asked, handing one of the pears to her. "My parents grew these." The red headed boy smiled when Mai reached out to grab the pear.

"May I try some?" Naru said, taking the pear from Genta's hand.

"Eh....oh...ok." Genta said before handing the pear over to Naru.

"What is your problem Naru?" Mai shouted at him and he shrugged, taking a bite out of the bear. "It's nice." He said before returning to his seat. Genta's face broke out into a grin. "You are an interesting bunch." He said.

Mai snorted. "Yeah, a little too interesting."

Genta laugh and Mai smiled. "I brought strawberries so even if you didn't eat the pear, here try some."

Mai got up from her seat and joined Genta at the veranda picking the strawberries. "So how do you find the inn?" Genta asked, sucking up a strawberry. Mai thought for a moment. "Quite...interesting..." she said. She remembered the incident and she winced. Genta noticed her expression and he placed a strawberry on her hand.

"It is haunted." He said. Mai turned to stare at him. "It has been haunted from the very start...the ghost of Mishima Yuki still lingers here."

"Well, could you tell me that sooner?" Mai told him. Genta chuckled. "She's an extremely shy ghost, doesn't appear much, she's a local legend...but the only thing you should take note off is...her sister...Mishima Yuki's twin sister is a ruthless one...many have been hurt by her, there was a murder case last year in this inn where a German tourist was killed here, some said it was the ghost of Yuki's twin sister...she's a big mystery, that ghost...some says she exists, others say she's Yuki herself, no one remembers Yuki's twin sisters name...that is for sure."

"What's with your scary expression?" Genta said. Mai shook her head and gave him a nervous smile. "You mean someone died in this inn." She said.

"Well, yes, but the police said it was suicide, a bottle of sleeping pills were found beside his bed and he broke up with his girl friend before that...it might not be ghost anyway."

Mai breathe a sigh of relief. "Your town is the weirdest town I have ever set foot on." She said and Genta smiled.

"You are right, but that's what makes it unique, you don't get stars like this at night at all do you in Tokyo." Genta pointed to the stars and there above them were millions and millions of shining stars.

'Wow!" Mai exclaimed, standing up. She had never seen so many stars before. She raised her hand in the air. "This is great!" she shouted. Genta laughs. "You are cute, Taniyama-san!" he said. Mai brought her hands down and stared at him and he shrugged. She laughed.

"May I join in?" Naru appeared suddenly. Genta half jumped before nodding as the expressionless boy sat beside him. "I would like to hear about the two ghosts you were talking about earlier." Genta hesitated before nodding, he handed the other boy a few strawberries and recited what he told Mai earlier.

Mai ignored both boys as they continued their serious talk, her gaze wandered to the beach in front of the inn and then to the cliff that stood a few hundred meters away. She stared at it. It would be great if she was up there right now...that way she could get a close encounter with the stars. She smiled and blinked. A strong wind blew past and a strong wave of nausea hit her. She stumbled before regaining her balance. She looked up and there on the cliff she saw a faint figure.

She blinked again. There was the figure standing at the edge. She let out a wordless cry as the figure leapt off the cliff.

"Mai!" Genta shouted at her. She turned. Naru was before her, clutching her arm tightly. Mai turned towards the cliff and realised that there was no one there. Sudden pain gripped her and she cried out.

Suddenly, the ghost hunt team was crowding around her. Her vision faded and the next thing she knew everything was black.

******************************************************************************************************

"Mai! Mai!" a voice shouted for her to get up. She opened her eyes and found herself staring at Naru. He had a worried expression on his face. As soon as she woke he smiled. Mai stared at him. "I'm dreaming aren't I." She said. Naru did not answer her, instead help her up and she stood.

"Where are we Naru?" she asked the boy. Naru did not answer her instead grabs her hand and pointed below.

Mai looked down and there she saw a hill, a beautiful woman stood on the hill, her skin white as snow, she was the most beautiful woman Mai had ever laid eyes on. "Who is that?" Mai whispered.

"Mai, observe." Naru spoke. Mai turned to the woman and found that she was plucking some yellow flowers. She was smiling and her hands move with elegance, each flower she plucks she plucked gently.

"Come my children." She whispered, placing each flower into her bamboo woven basket. "What is she doing Naru?" she asked. The image of the woman faded and it was replaced with that of the inn itself. There, there were two girls playing in the yard. 'Yuki!' a voice cried out. The two girls stopped playing, smiles broke out on their face and laughter erupted as they leapt into the hands of a woman. Her face was hidden and blurred so was that of her two little girls.

'Yuki...isak..."

The first girl's name was audible, the other too soft to hear. Mai walked towards them and again the image faded. Naru grabs her shoulder. "Be careful, Mai, all id not what it seems." He whispered. he smiled at her and his image vanished like that of the woman.

"Wait! Naru! What do you mean?"

"MAI!"

A hard slap went across her face. She shot up hitting a head. She heard Bou-san cried out. She blinked and found herself laying on a soft comfortable futon. "What happened?" she asked. She turned and noticed Ayako sobbing. Lin and Naru stood stone face beside her futon. Masako was worried and John and Genta were in front of her.

'Are you feeling ill?" Naru asked and Mai felt dread plummet to her stomach.

"No." She said. Naru sighed. "If you are than it is better if you head back." He said. Mai felt anger rising through her like red hot fire.

"You drag me here and now YOU WANT ME TO GO BACK HOME!'

'Now, now, Mai cool it." Bou-san said, sitting up and rubbing his chin. "And Naru, if you're worried just say so."

Mai seethes and turns away. She winced and grabs her leg. The wound Ayako bandage was beginning to hurt very badly. "Are you hiding something, Mai?" Bou-san said. He grabs her leg and pulled her kimono up. He saw the bandage leg and gasped.

"Genta is there any nearby clinic..." he whispered.

'There is, but why?"

"Mai, your blood, its flowing through the bandage...are you hurt...its flowing really badly." He said. Mai turned to look at her wounded leg. He was right.

"First let's take this bandage off." Bou-san said calmly as Genta went to call the clinic. He slowly unwrapped the bandaged, as the bandaged came off more blood spilled onto the futon turning it red. Mai winced and cried out; Masako grabs her hand and squeezed it. It was a first nice gesture Masako had given her.

"No way..." Mai heard John gasped, a look of shock passed Lin's and Naru's face for an instant. Mai turned too looked at her legs. There were carvings on her legs. "I am not alive, I am neither dead, I am not two, I am one, I am not forgotten yet I am, I am neither you, neither am I. For you I set my curse upon, suffer." Bou-san read the carvings.

"Death." Naru whispered.


	5. Red Chrysanthemum

You know if you want to experience the true horror of this, I suggest you play thing music on your computer while reading.

.com/watch?v=nOMxdu9HLLk

here's the link heeheehee

The vanishing fog

File 5#

Red Chrysanthemum

"I have stopped the bleeding, but just to be sure, please rest for at least a day." the old doctor said, placing Mai's leg gently on the new futon. Mai nodded weak from the amount of injections she had to go through.

"It is not serious?" Genta asked the doctor and the old man shook his head. He glanced at Mai's leg and Mai noticed he was about to say something but stopped himself. "Well, have a good rest and tomorrow morning you would be good as new."

"I feel like shit." Mai moaned and Bou-san snorted, before patting her head. "You be a good girl and rest."

Naru agreed with him and addressed the group. "While the doctors were tending to Mai, Lin and John had set up video cameras around the inn, Genta if you would recite the story of the inn to them." he said. Genta nodded and retold his story.

When he was done, Ayako was gripping onto Mai tightly. "Can we change rooms?" She whispered. Naru shook his head turning to Ayako. "Ayako I want you to take care of Mai and the cameras, John and Masako would head down to the cliff for some exorcising...and Bou-san please head down to the police station, I want the names of all the people who have disappeared."

Bou-san sighed. "Leave the hard jobs to the older ones huh..." he said before waving and walking out of the inn. "Lin, we would head to the fields."

"Why?" Ayako asked suddenly. Naru held out the flower the client handed him. "Red Chrysanthemum." He said.

"I'll stay with Mai." Genta said and Naru turned to stare at the boy, for some reason he felt irritated. "Do as you wish," he said before heading out of the inn, Lin trailing behind him with a video camera and voice recorder.

"Naru..." Mai called out and Naru turned, the red haired was on the futon, she was staring weakly at him. "Yuki..." she whispered before closing her eyes. Naru eyes widened a little before he turned again. Was that a clue, or was Mai having delusions? He clenched the red Chrysanthemum in his hand.

*

John walked silently straight down the path along side Masako. She was silent and for some reason her kimono was raised to her nose. She was somewhat weird to John, since the moment he met her. 'Do you sense anything?" he asked Masako, who turned to face him and did not answer.

"When I was little my father used to tell me a folk tale..." she said suddenly shocking him. It would seem that anything that comes out from the ever silent girl was important. She was unlike Mai who blurts out whatever was on her mind. "Continue?" John said, as the trailed slowly towards the cliff.

From here, he could see the small town Genta lived in. It was really small with a few small buildings and terrace houses, further up there were a few secluded houses but that was all. "Have you heard of Kuchisake-onna?" she asked John who stopped. He thought for a moment, it was strangely familiar.

'Might have..." John said.

"It's about a woman, a concubine of a samurai who was mutilated by her husband, killed and disfigured, she returned as a malicious spirit, wanting nothing but vengeance...she would stalk men and ask is she was beautiful, if they answered 'no' she would kill them on the spot, but if they answered 'yes' she would kill them when they reached home..."

'That is quite a story." John said wincing.

"A few years back I had encountered a similar case to the story, many said it was tale come alive, you see 3 years back we were doing a show in town where many men had been killed. The mayor there asked for help and of course we agreed...a woman, a dead one was the cause of all the killings, her style was way similar to that of the folk tale I just old you..." she said.

It was weird hearing Masako talked too much. Most of the time she wouldn't...most of the time she was either fainting or making some revelations (damm you anime producer for making my favorite character faint most of the time) he stared at her.

"It just made me wonder...are folk tales just baseless stuff people come up with...or are they codes of the past."

The wind blew past and a fog descended on them quickly. John gasped and heard Masako's voice fading away. He quickly reached out and grabs her. "Are you alright Masako?" he asked. He heard Masako gasped and he sighed. He couldn't see in this fig. What was with this fog? It was white and it was thick. He coughed.

"Masako we have to get out of here." He said. He remembered the old client told them and he shivered. Were they going to disappear? He pulled Masako and there was a strong gust of wind. He winced and the fog was gone. He panted and turned. Masako was beside him but she wasn't looking at him instead she was looking ahead.

"LOOK OUT!" she screamed suddenly. John's head snapped to the cliff a few feet ahead of them, there was a girl, she was falling.

She fell fast from the cliff. John releases Masako and ran towards the cliff, knowing that it was fruitless to save her. The girl fell and John cried out. As she was about to hit the waves she turned to face them.

There was a loud snapped and her head fell from her body hitting the frothy waves. There was a huge gust of winds, the sounds of the waves ferociously hitting on the beach. Masako and John turned to each other, shocked and they ran towards the cliff.

**************************************************************************************************************

"Naru we are here." Lin announced. He didn't need to. There was red Chrysanthemum everywhere on the field. Genta was right. This place was filled with them. They smelt no different from the usual chrysanthemum flowers he usually saw but they were different. The redness in them was deep and dark just like the blood of humans.

"Lin, the voice recorder." He ordered. Lin nodded and set the recorder on the ground. He sat himself on the ground and handed the video camera to Naru who places it to face Lin.

"Begin." Naru said and Lin closes his eye. His mouth opens and a sweet melody resounded throughout the fields. It was a high shrill and it was relaxing. Lin stopped and the sharp melody resounded. A few seconds later a sharp shrill echoed back and Lin turned to Naru. Naru nodded. They have answered.

There were sprits here.

Another sharp shrill echoed back, this time it came in the form of a scream. It echoed throughout the fields and for a moment the red flowers seem to bleed. Naru blinked and Lin grabs him. "We must get out of here." He whispered. Naru stared at the flowers. Was he dreaming? There was another sharp shrill this time closer than before, it resounded off the fields.

"Naru!" Lin said with more urgency. Naru felt cold all of a sudden. He turned as Lin pulled him back making Naru drop the video camera. There was a gust of sharp wind and Naru felt a pain on his neck. He let out a slight gasped. For a moment he saw a white tail. Then there was nothing and the wind stopped blowing. The shrills had stopped and Naru gently places his hand on his neck. He hesitated but lifted it. There on his hand was deep red blood.

"Naru..." Lin whispered. Lin had picked up the video camera from the ground and showed it to Naru. Naru's eyes widened. There as he replayed the video, dancing all around him and Naru all the time were many white cloth figures, each without the features of a face. Each dancing around Naru and Lin, each screaming into their ears.

The red chrysanthemums beneath their feet slowly but surely...bleeding, redness.


	6. The cliff and black orbs

Firstly, let me give an explanation

An orb is a ghost except it in a shape of a circle. Basically it's a circle like thingy. If you want to know what it actually looks like go YouTube, you'll find a lot.

Secondly, a shadow figure is a black opaque human shape thing. It is said that when Ghosts wants to materialise, they have to take in energy into them, therefore that is why when they are going to appear, the air starts to get cold because they are sucking up energy. Kinda like an endothermic reaction (revision of o level chemistry!) shadow figures appear black as they are not able to gather enough energy to materialise themselves, that is why the blackness and that is why shadow figure

The vanishing fog

File 6#

The cliff and black orbs

They were on the cliff, staring at the edge, both of them in disbelief.

"What just happened?" Masako whispered, she clutches her head suddenly. John shook his head before walking slowly towards the edge of the cliff. He walked with caution. Obviously he was scared, Masako could see that. When he reached the edge of the cliff he peered down. Masako walked towards him and stood beside him.

Below the waves crashes mercilessly onto the rock surface of the cliff. The frothy wave crashes. Masako reaches out and clutches John tightly. A wave of dizziness passed over her and the waves spun in a brilliant mix of colours.

"Masako?" John asked worried. Masako lifts her sleeves up to her nose. "I smelt fire." She whispered. "A strong thick smell of fire and blood." She whispered. John thought for a moment and once again looked below the cliff.

The waves were still rolling in. The night sky dark, the stars shining brightly. It was a beautiful night but John couldn't help but feel scared. There was something eerie about this Island. Something very eerie.

The folk tale their old client told them in the evening came back to him. "Shiho Eri..." he whispered, the most beautiful woman in the country. "What is she?" he whispered. Real or fake...or possible culprit? Somehow...the story seemed vague, uncompleted.

He heard Masako gave a sharp gasped. John turned and shouted. He slipped and fell. He screamed and closes his eyes. He fell fast off the cliff, and then something jerked him hard stopping him from falling.

"John!" Masako shouted. John looked up and saw Masako grabbing on to his t-shirt pulling hard. He panted hard, sweat rolled down his forehead. He gulped with difficulty and looked below. The waves were crashing hard on the rock, some of the sea water splashing onto his legs. He begun to get dizzy and quickly grab onto Masako's outreach hands. Masako was panting, and trying with difficulty to pull him up. Her face a mixture of white from shock and red from effort of holding on to John.

Who pushed him? He was certain he did not slip? He felt it, a hand...a soft gentle hand pushing him of the cliff...

"John!" Masako shouted again and with one final pull managed to get him on the edge of the cliff again. They collapse on the edge gasping and panting.

A gust of wind blew past and Masako gave a sharp gasped. John felt chills going down his back. They both turn to look behind them and there was nothing. Both turn to look at each other...

"Let's head back shall we..." John asked Masako and she nodded silently.

They walked quickly back to the safe spot away from the cliff edge. They did not dare looked behind them.

"Do you feel it...?" Masako whispered.

John did not answer her. He knew what she meant.

He was about to look back at the cliff again when Masako stopped him. "Don't!" she warned and John stopped. A gust of wind blew past creating an eerie howl...followed by the sound of children's laughter...and silent screams.

He felt it... the eyes at the cliff. People were staring at him and Masako, watching, probing.

Strangely...no one was there.

Masako tugged at him. "I feel weak John." She whispered and without warning she fell to the ground. John let out a wordless cry as she hit the ground.

The people were watching him.

Black figures...

******************************************************************************************************

"Mai, Mai!"

Mai woke and found herself staring at a smiling Naru. She sighed. "I'm dreaming." She said and the Naru lifted her up.

"What is going on Naru?" she whispered. Naru places his hand to her lips. "Be quiet Mai, and listen." He whispered. He pointed below her and Mai found herself staring at her own sleeping body.

"Whoa!" she shouted. She saw Ayako stroking her face with a wet towel, saw Genta sitting next to her, and the soft glow of the candle light illuminating his face. Naru and the others weren't back yet. "Watch Mai..." he whispered.

The room where she was turned dark immediately. Mai blinked and there she saw herself again except this time Ayako, Genta, Mai and the entire room was a black outline. It was like watching an old fashion movie.

"What are you trying to do, Naru?" she asked the boy who smiled sadly at her.

"Mai, you must solve this case." He whispered and directed her back to the scene below. Mai stared at her sleeping face. This was weird. Was this an out of body experience? She stared hard, turning to Naru at some occasions than it happened. At first Mai thought it was her mistake. Thought that whatever she saw was an illusion. She blinked hard and opened it again.

No...It wasn't. A black spot was moving quickly around the room, like a light particle, shooting and bouncing off the wall of in inn. It moved fast like a blur, it was somehow like mist.

Her eyes widened as it shot past Ayako's head and straight through Genta's body. She saw Genta wince and places his hand over his chest. He seemed confused at first. Mai was about to scream when Naru places his hand over Mai's mouth. "What is that Naru?' she asked with a shaking voice.

It was growing bigger.

"An orb, Mai." He said. Mai turned to stare at him and his eyes were grim. "Mai when you awake get out of the room immediately, that thing is dangerous..." he said.

"Wait Naru, I don't understand...why must I solve this case? Why are you not telling me run away...like you always do...why!" she asked him desperately. Naru shook his head. "it is dangerous yes, but it has to be solved."

"Why!" she shouted. Naru smiled.

"What is happening of this Island Naru!" she shouted.

"That I cannot tell you." He whispered.

"Naru!" she shouted. He was beginning to fade away.

"What is happening!" she shouted.

Naru opened his mouth and whispered. Mai couldn't hear him but could catch the shape of his lips.

"Mur-der."

There was a bright light and Mai gasped. She opened her eyes and found herself staring at the ceiling of the inn. She remembered Naru's warning and sat up. She cried out silently and shook Ayako who awoke. Genta went closer to her. He was wincing again.

"We must get out of this room." She said.

Ayako stared at her confused. 'Why Mai?" she asked. Mai stared at the wincing Genta.

'Just do it!" she shouted.

"Sheez, fine..." Ayako said standing up and helping Mai up.

"But first tell me why..." she said again.

"We are in danger."


	7. The names of the lost

For the record, Omi is something I created myself...hee hee hee

The vanishing fog

File 7#

The names of the lost

They had changed room and Mai felt a lot of safer. Ayako and Genta sat beside her each not saying a word. Genta would wince now and then and Mai noticed it. "Are you hurting?" she asked. Genta hesitated for a moment and he nodded.

"I feel sharp pricks." He whispered. "Sharp cold pricks...like fire, it burns." He said. He winces again and touches his chest. Ayako raised her eye brows at Mai. "Ok, Mai tell me what you saw...I know you had one of those dreams again."

Mai looked at Ayako and laughs nervously. How could she tell Ayako about the dreams? Naru was in those dreams...

Genta winces again and Mai touches him. "Let me see." She said. He blushes and Mai frowned at him. "Why are you blushing?" she asked. Ayako snorted and hit Mai's head. "Genta let me see." Genta nodded and lifted his shirt. He gasped and so did Ayako.

"What, What?" Mai asked.

"What...what is this?" Genta whispered, Mai noticed that his voice was shaking. She turned and found herself staring at Genta's blotching red skin. She winced, it looked very bad. It was all rough and bumpy.

A hand mark was imprinted on Genta's skin in the form of red blotches. It was hard to look at. "Mai...what did you see?" Ayako whispered. Mai hesitated. "A black orb." She said. Ayako gasped so loudly it scared Mai. She turned to Mai and shook her.

"What else!" she said and Mai's mouth clamped shut. She remembered Naru's words. _"Murder"_

She shivered. Ayako turned to look at Genta's scream.

"You know Mai, curses can come in all shapes and sizes, that black orb you just saw is a malicious sprit." She said. "An Omi."

"Omi?" Mai asked. Ayako patted Genta. "It is a curse, Mai, it was lucky you got us out of the room any longer and Genta would have been dead."

Genta gasped and Mai tensed. "Omi has been used around the ages, sometimes appearing to be a black mist, sometimes in a form of a human and sometimes orbs, they are casts by very powerful people, mostly people from the dark arts." She said. "I saw an Omi casting before, my grandpa once did it, and it wasn't a pretty sight. He did it to punish a lowly servant...the servant almost died."

"Once an Omi is casted, it takes a very powerful exorcist to cleanse it...Omi are servant ghost you see."

"So you mean I could have died." Genta whispered and Ayako nodded. Genta looked at Mai. "I am forever indebted to you."

"What the hell are you saying?" Mai said loudly. "Now is not the time for that! How do we get rid of it?"

"You don't need to worry about that, I would get rid of it...what we need to worry about is..."

"Who cast it?" Bou-san's sounded behind them.

Mai, Ayako and Genta all jumped and Bou-san entered the room carrying a very thick file. It was a dirty looking file and it had yellow paper sticking out. Bou-san's face was grim as he set the file down on the floor and sat down. He took out a note book from his pocket.

"Is Naru back yet?" he asked.

"Well if he was, then you would have seen him blind bat." Ayako retorted. Bou-san was about to answer back when he shook his head. "I have no time to argue with you old bat."

Ayako's eyes flashed in rage but Bou-san raised his hand to stop her. "This is very bad." He whispered.

"What is?" Mai asked.

"Well Naru asked me to research about this Island and the people who disappeared, seems I found out more than I needed too." he said.

He set his note book down and sighed.

"We might have landed ourselves in terrible danger."

******************************************************************************************************************

"Yasuhara-san!" John shouted, spotting the young graduate student. Yasuhara-san was shocked by John's voice and looked up. He saw Masako dangling on John's back and saw that John was struggling. He hurried towards them.

"What happened?" he asked when he saw Masako's pale and weak composition.

"I don't know, she just fainted," John said, his voice breaking up in panic, "she just grabs me and fainted."

Yasuhara lifted Masako from John and he panted heavily.

"What were you doing until now Yasuhara?" John asked. Yasuhara laughs nervously. "I was investigating something." He said. John lifted his eye brow. "What?" he asked. Yasuhara did not answer. "Anyway let's head back to the inn shall we."

John nodded and they hurried towards the inn which was coming into view. When the bushes shook and the both of them stopped. John's heart pounded hard in his ears. Was there something? The bushes beside them shook and Yasuhara-san let out a soft shriek.

There was a gust of wind and the bushes shook more violently, shapes were emerging from behind the bushes.

John and Yasuhara screamed as the shapes leapt out of the bushes.

There was a slight groaned, some soft struggles and then silence.

***************************************************************************************************************

"Naru, what happened?" Mai asked. Naru, Lin, John, Yasuhara and Masako who was asleep were covered in leaves and mud.

"We had some misunderstandings." Naru said, touching his bruised eyes and staring hard at John who was fidgeting uncomfortably.

"I'm sorry; I thought you were a ghost." John said and Naru ignored the comment. Bou-san made a grumpy noise with his throat and everyone turned their attention to him. "Please listen, this is very important." He said. "I don't think we should do this case any longer."

"Why?" Mai asked and Bou-san raised his notebook.

"Just in this 2 weeks alone more that 90 people disappeared." He said and silence filled the room, the shock was evident. Bou-san continued when he didn't get a response. Out of the 90 something, only 7 people were found. 4 all lost their memories; the other 3 died 5 days after they were found...they had red blotches on their skins."

Mai made a noise and Genta lifted his shirt. "You mean red blotches like this!" he exclaimed. Bou-san looked at it and his eyes widened. "Yes, exactly like that!" he said.

"Omi' Ayako whispered. "Somebody on this island is casting curses."

"Continue." Naru's voice said sharply. He seemed to be more tense than usual. Mai noted.

Bou-san continued, he looked at his notebook. "There was a gas explosion a few years back, it killed hundreds of people, injuring more than a thousand, during the incidents, and some people thought they saw white cloth figures dancing in the fires. The fires could not be put out with water and it rages for 5 days. It burnt the chrysanthemum fields but the flowers did not burn."

Mai turned to Genta and realised he was shivering.

"It is true." Genta whispered. The room turned to stare at him. "We could not put out the fires, strange things happened then." He said.

"The cause of the gas explosion was not found, although the gas was said to be methane." Bou-san said. He snaps his notebook shut.

"The people who disappeared had two similarities, they were all children between the ages of 5 to 20, they all had long dark hair and they were all extremely bright people."

"They were all born during winter." Bou-san whispered. "Doesn't Yuki ring a bell?" he said.

"Go on." Naru said and Bou-san stared hard at Naru.

"Your client, Mr Rei, is a very mysterious person. I could not dig up any information about him. All I know is that a few years back he grew very rich and one year ago he came into this land." He said.

"Naru we should stop this case, it seems dangerous." He continued.

"No!" Mai said and stopped herself. The team stared at her and she shook her head. "I want to figure this out...and besides...I want to know what is going on..." she said, looking at her sacred leg.

"Is Masako alright..." Genta asked breaking the tensed silence.

"She will be." Naru said, standing up and taking up the video camera. "Something is happening." He whispered.

"Who and what is causing all these?" Ayako asked. "Isn't that what we need to find out?"

Naru places the video camera on the ground. "For once let's trust in the folk tale," he said. "Let us trust that it is not just a tale..." he said.

"It is real."


	8. Butlers, Masters and little children

Let's have some blood

The vanishing fog

File 8#

Butlers, Masters and little children

For some reason Naru insisted that Mai followed him to Mr Rei's house. Mai had no choice but to agree to his request, since he was leader. The all great and mighty, narcissists of all time.

"Can Genta come?" Mai asked. She had taken a liking to the boy. He was almost like a close friend; it was easy to talk to him too. He wasn't as cold as Naru either and not as unfriendly as Masako and he had helped out a lot.

"No." Naru replied and Mai pouted. "Why?" She complained and Naru held out his hand and glared at her. "No." He said. Genta pulled on Mai's sleeves. "It's ok Mai; anyway I need to help out in my parent's vegetables store anyway."

"Glad you understand." Naru said and Mai clenched her fist and showed it to him. "If you weren't my boss I would have sent this into your lovable face." She said. Genta laughs and wave at them heading out of the inn and walking down the path. "Now with him out of the way...Yasuhara, how is the research going along." Naru said. Yasuhara-san looked up a little startled before smiling. "A lot better than I have expected."

'What are you two planning?" Mai asked them both and John nodded in agreement.

"Let us go, Mai." Naru said completely ignoring his assistant. Mai sighed, controlling her rising anger and stumbling after him. Her injured legs still hurt but Naru was not walking any slower. That insensitive bastard, one day she'll place a bug in his tea. She smiled at that thought when Naru grabs her when she tripped.

"Be careful." He said and Mai shook his grip away. "I can take care of myself ok."

Naru shook his hand and continued walking, for some reason he looked a bit angry. "Thank you." Mai said softly, catching up to him. He did not reply. "Ayako said she would get rid of the Omi." She told Naru. "Bou-san is helping her."

"I know that." He said and pointed to the huge castle like house. They have arrived. "Do you sense anything, Mai?" Naru asked suddenly. Mai stared at the castle then at the town. "Something doesn't sit right." she said and Naru nodded. Mai knew that Naru wanted to hear that.

"There are plenty of loop holes in our case." He explained. "And I intend to erase them."

"What loop holes?" she asked. Naru took out a video recorder. "Firstly, what are we up against." He said and rang the doorbell.

There was a creak as the giant gates open and as they walked towards the main mansion there was William. The man looked more sinister than usual. Mai noticed Naru glaring at the men. "My, why are you here, have you discovered anything?" he asked. Naru did not answer instead curtly replied, "I want to see your master."

"Unfortunately he is away on an important business; you could relay your information to me." William said. Mai noticed Naru giving William one of his fake smiles.

"I rather not thank you." He said. "I'll come back another day."

William paused for a moment before nodding. "Allow me to take you to the gate."

"There is no need." Naru said. "Just tell me where the elementary school is."

William was angry, Mai could see it, and beneath his calm exterior the man was shaking in anger inside. "Well, it just a few meters away from the main town centre, to the east of the town.' William said. "Near the red fields."

"Another thing..." Naru said. "Were the flowers always red to begin with?"

William hesitated. "It was."

"Oh really." Naru said before turning away. Mai gasped, before bowing to William and catching up to Naru.

"That was extremely rude Naru." Mai said.

"Oh really." Naru said and Mai sighed.

That boy was hard to deal with.

****************************************************************************************************************************

"This is our school; Mr Rei had told us about you and said you might visit." The woman told Naru and Mai.

"I am Narumi Kazuya and this is my assistant, Mai Taniyama." Naru said to the woman, they all bowed and the woman smiled at them. "We are honoured to have you here, I am the principal of this school, Yukari Inoue." She said.

"Inoue-san," Mai greeted and the woman nodded in approval. She was in her fifties had greying black hair and wrinkled skin. She must have looked very pretty when she was young. "Welcome to Onna elementary school."

Mai wanted to laugh, but held herself. Which idiot would name their school, woman elementary school? Well, whoever it was he or she had very poor naming sense.

"Mai, you do know that this Island is named Onna, do you." Naru said noticing her controlled smile. Mai turned red in embarrassment. "I do know that!" she said and Inoue-san laughs.

"You are interesting bunch." She said, before leading them towards the school hard court. There, there were little children; they were all lined up all watching an old man reciting the school rules. "That man is the displinary master, since the disappearance we have to step up safety measures." He said.

"Hmm..." Mai said. "How many students have disappeared?" Naru asked and Inoue-san stopped smiling. She sighed.

"About 50 of my students have disappeared." She said sadly. "We were unable to do anything for them, 2 of them were found but they have seem to have lost their memories." She said.

"*#^*^50!" Mai said and slapped her hand over her mouth.

"I'm sorry for my assistance coarse language." Naru said and the woman shook her head. "It is shocking, that is a fact. A few weeks ago this hard court was filled with kids, but now, look, only half of it is filled."

"May we talk to some of the students...and may we know the names of the two who have lost their memories."

"We will help, and co-operate." Inoue-san said. "Mr Rei said you were a dependable source."

"Well, did he?" Naru said and she nodded.

'Could you tell me more about Mr Rei?" he asked the woman who hesitated and shook her head. "We are forbidden to talk about Mr Rei to outsiders, all I can tell you is that he is a very mysterious man." She said.

"Why? IS he dangerous?" Mai asked the principal. Inoue-san smiled curtly. "I cannot say anymore."

"Just..." she said, "Beware of the butler."

**********************************************************************************************************************

"So cute!' Mai exclaimed when they saw the little girl. She was about 10 years old, shy and short. She had pale chubby cheeks and Mai fell in love instantly. "Hello!" she said to the kid who stood behind Inoue-san and the woman laughs.

"It's alright, Hikaru, they would not hurt you." Inoue-san said. Hikaru slowly reappeared and walked slowly over to Mai, she stayed far away from Naru though. Mai shook the little girl's hand. She was really short for a 10 year old. She only reached up to Mai's thighs.

"Hello..." Mai said again and the girl blushed a little.

"Hello." She whispered.

Mai resisted the urge to pinch the girl's chubby cheeks.

"My name is Mai." Mai said to the girl who nodded. "I know." She said. Mai frowned and turned to Inoue-san.

"You told her my name?' she asked.

Inoue-san shook her head. Mai turned back to the girl again. She was looking at Naru and she pointed her finger at him. "Big brother over there is called Narumi." She said. Mai frowned, now why would she know that.

"He told me." Hikaru said smiling slightly pointing at the entrance of the classrooms doors. Mai turned and shivers went up her spine.

There was no one there. It was a black empty spot.

"Who is he, Hikaru?" Naru asked suddenly, he was gazing at the entrance, he looked worried.

"Kenta-kun." Hikaru said, she turned cheerful. "I am the only one whom he speaks too, he is a very lonely boy...He told me he liked Me." she said to Mai and Naru. She blushed again and looked at the ground. Inoue-san was shocked and Mai could see that.

"Kenta-kun, is it...where is he?" Mai probed.

"He is standing there..." Hikaru said. "He is very shy you see." She said again and turned towards the entrance of the classroom.

"Kenta-kun, come on, don't be shy, they are not bad people!" she shouted.

"Hikaru...there is no one..."

Naru stopped Inoue-san from saying anything further.

"Is he coming?" Naru asked Hikaru. She hesitated and peered up at him. "What are you talking about Onii-chan, his standing right in front of you?" she said and smiled at the space in front of Naru. She pointed and went over to the space.

Mai tensed and Naru squatted slowly.

"Hello Kenta." He said to the empty space. Mai breathe out and saw that white mist had escaped her mouth. She shivered, it was colder.

Hikaru giggled. "Kenta-san says you're scary." Hikaru said. Mai gripped onto Hikaru and felt chills go down her back. There was indeed something strange about the empty space in front of Naru. There was something there...

"Right, Hikaru that is enough." Inoue-san said and Hikaru bounded out of her seat. She glanced at Mai and Naru before shouting for Kenta and they ran out of the classroom.

"I knew she had been acting strange these past few days." Inoue-san said. Naru held no emotion and he turned his head. That was when Mai spotted the cut on his neck.

"Kenta-kun...who is he?" Naru asked and the woman tensed she gave a heavy sigh. "He was one of the first few to disappear a few weeks back...Hikaru was the closest to him."

"He was very bright boy aced all his tests but he was very shy..."

Naru stared at the empty space and he stared hard at it. "Well that proves one thing." He said.

Mai looked at the spot...tension heavy in the air. There was something eerie about this classroom. Suddenly they heard a scream. A high pitch scream.

"Hikaru!" Mai shouted. Naru wasted no time and he ran out of the classroom followed by Mai and Inoue-san. Mai places her hand to her mouth and Inoue-san cried out, Naru winces and held his hand to his nose.

Blood stained the corridors of the school compound. Hikaru was on the ground, her face facing the ceiling, a thin slit ran down her throat and blood was pouring out quickly like an over flowing tap. She was shaking slightly. Her hands were failing uselessly in the air. Her movements becoming slower and slower. Mai places her hand on her head.

"No." She whispered. Inoue-san sank to the ground, her mouth wide open.

"Ken...ta-kun..." Hikaru managed a soft whisper and her eyes turned glassy. Her head slumped to the side and her eyes stared at Naru and Mai. Her eyes boring deeply, glassy, cold and dead.

"Shit." Naru whispered.

Mai clenches her head tightly, tears flowing out of her eyes and she screamed.


	9. First murder

Let the roller coaster begin! I am done building up the mystery, now let's solve it! Hahaha

The vanishing fog

File 9#

First murder

"Mai." A voice softly called to the girl and she woke.

Mai found herself staring at Naru who was smiling sympathetically. She stood up and realised she was floating above the sea. She rubbed her eyes and realised that they were wet. Why was she crying? Images of blood and a dead girl's body flashed in her head and she winced. She remembered the face of the smiling little girl she met briefly.

"Naru...I didn't save her..." Mai said. The smiling Naru went over to her and took her hand. "It's alright." He said. Mai felt sadness building up in her. "She was just alive...just there." She said. Naru patted her on her head. "I couldn't save her..." she said before breaking off sobbing again. She looked up and realised that Naru was staring sadly at her. His arms were raised as if to hug her but he places them down again.

"Mai, there was nothing you could do." He said.

"I should have known!" she shouted. "I am the one with supernatural abilities, I should have known!" she said.

"Mai, things happen for a reason." Naru said. "There is nothing you could do to change it, nothing in this world happens without any reason."

He took her by her shoulders. "Listen to me, Mai." He said. "That is why you have to solve this case."

"I want to get out of this Island." She whispered, feeling anger and frustration rising in her chest. It was a heavy feeling and it hurt badly.

"That is not like you, Mai," Naru whispered, she saw the disappointment in his face.

"She died, Naru, she died and we might have been the cause of it...that girl she was talking to ghost!" she shouted at Naru. Naru shook his head.

"That ghost might have killed her." She said. Naru shook his head.

"Mai, there is one thing you need to know." He said.

He stared at her. "Ghost do not murder...only humans." He whispered.

Mai was stunned for a moment, something clicked. "Murder..." she whispered and Naru nodded. "Mai, there are bad things happening on this Island, danger lurks everywhere, people, innocence is dying, you have to solve it fast."

"I am not a detective!" Mai shouted at him. "I can't take it!"

Naru gripped her tightly. "Once you find the links, you find everything, in dire situation colours change for a reason." He said.

"Trust nothing, Mai, not even yourself." He said.

"That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard!' Mai said, pushing the Naru away, even with him smiling, this Naru was not comforting her, not comforting her like he'll usually do.

"Then, who do I trust." She said.

Naru smiled, "Yourself." He said.

He disappeared and Mai shouted after him.

"What the hell are you talking about!" she shouted and someone slapped her hard.

"Don't just faint on me."

Mai woke and saw Bou-san standing over her. She remembered the dream and found Naru sitting beside her. He was grim and he was on the phone.

"I'm sorry...for the lost." Bou-san said to her. "It must have been rough."

Mai began to shake and Bou-san gripped her hands hard. "It's alright, now...I just hope the little girl is fine now."

"Where am I?" Mai asked Bou-san once she had regained composure. "In the rest room of the police station." Bou-san said standing up and stretching. "You have been asleep for 12 hours."

Mai gripped her hurting head and she stared at her hands. She remembered Hikaru and felt immediate tears in her eyes, she rubbed them away.

"_You must solve this case Mai; no one deserves to die like that."_

Naru's voice resounded in her head and she turn to Naru who had just slapped the phone shut. "Masako is alright." He said. "I think we should leave this Island." He said, shocking both Bou-san and Mai.

"Do you have a fever?" he asked Naru and Naru waved him off, he glanced briefly at Mai before shifting his gaze back at Bou-san. "I cannot allow our lives to be placed in anymore danger."

Mai felt relief rushed into her. She wanted to go home, she wanted no more to do with this case...the death of the little girl was making her very uneasy.

"_That is not like you, Mai."_

"We can't," Mai said, shocking herself. Naru glanced at her.

"We have to solve this...think about the number of children who would die because we didn't solve it." She said. "I cannot allow it."

Bou-san frowned before standing up smiling. "Well...if Mai is alright with it," he said. He ruffled her hair. "Don't worry; we won't let anymore children die."

"Oh really." Naru said, turning away. "Well then, let's have some tea, then."

Mai had a feeling he was smiling.

************************************************************************************************************

Masako watches as Ayako sat in her gown. She was waving her paper like stick and the smell of incense drifted around the room. Masako felt slightly uneasy, this room was evil. The Omi was sitting quietly, it was not moving.

Ayako waved her stick again, the sound of paper fluttered and Masako felt the Omi moved. It moved silently, shifting against the wooden bamboo walls of the inn itself. Its shape constantly changes. Masako could see it, although it wasn't clear.

"Masako," Ayako said. "Where is it?" she asked. Masako gulped and swallowed her dizziness. She pointed at the wall and Ayako stepped up and raised her stick, a slight gush of wind entered the room and swirled.

A slight hissing noise arouses and echoed around the room. It was from the Omi, its black orb like figure twisting and meshing together, it was growing taller and bigger by the moment.

"Ayako," Masako whispered. Ayako had her eyes closed, she waves the stick again and the Omi wavered slightly, before growing taller, soon it was as high as the ceiling, it's had a feature of a human figure. It bent its head and with its faceless featureless head stared down at both Ayako and Masako.

"A snake, huh." Ayako said before jabbing her snake. The Omi moved fast across the room and Masako dodge it with a scream. it stood behind Ayako, a mouth appearing on its featureless face, it bent quickly, its mouth ready to engulf the woman.

"Ayako!" Masako shouted. Ayako turned and jabbed her stick hard plunging it right into the Omi. She saw the Omi bent before a sharp scream pierced her ears. The candles Ayako set up blew out and the incensed twisted around the room...soon there was silence. Masako blinked, panting. Ayako opened her eyes and smiled.

"It was a strong one." She said. Masako shivered as Ayako places her stick down and blew out the incensed.

A wave of dizziness took over Masako and she turned fast. Chills went down her spine, the sliding door of the room once closed was open behind her. A lone girl of 10 years was staring at her, her eyes blanked.

"You..." Masako whispered, there was another gust of wind, the sliding doors slammed shut and the girl disappeared with the wind.


	10. Memories are never lost

For your information, Hideyoshi was an emperor of Japan at a time. He was able to unite a part of Japan under his rule; he was the one that conquered Okinawa.

Also Okinawa wasn't actually part of Japan in the first place.

Try reading some folk tales of Japan, I assure you they are pretty interesting, some of them are plain creepy too.

For those of you who don't get what's going on, : ) frankly I don't give a damm, but if you want to know than you can just tell me and I'll explain it to you, although it would be a pain in the butt.

The vanishing fog

File 10#

Memories are never lost

"Genta!" Mai called out happily to the boy who was working hard outside his father's vegetable store. He peered up and he smiled happily at the girl. "Taniyama-san!" he greeted. Naru watches as both of them greeted each other; he noticed the smile on Mai's face and grew irritated. He made a noise with his throat and made his way in between Genta and Mai. "Hello, Kazuya-san." Genta said.

"Hello," Naru said without any enthusiasms.

"Your father works here, huh?" Mai said. Genta nodded. Naru's eye brow twitched as Genta took Mai's wrist and led her to the vegetable counter. "Try this, it's our stores speciality.' He said.

"What is it with you?" Bou-san spoke behind Naru and Naru shook his head. He turned and noticed the monk grinning. "Wipe that of your face." Naru said before turning to Mai. "Mai, we don't have time, we need to see the girl who lost her memories." He said. Mai's grin was wiped off and she turned nodding.

"Haruka, you're going to see little Haruka." Genta said. Naru clenches his fist and gave the boy one of his fake smiles. "Eh, yes." He said.

"Do you want to come, Genta...our leader can't seem to find his way." Mai said and Naru turned away as Genta nodded happily. "I would love to help, Kazuya-san you must have a very bad sense of direction." Genta said laughing.

"I do not." Naru said. It was true he didn't. There was something about this town, it was strange everywhere they turn the paths all lead to a single path and then they were back to square one, it was as if everywhere they turned was a dead end.

"Pa, I'm going out for a bit!" Genta shouted into his house.

"Alright." A gruff male's voice sounded and Genta grinned.

"My father gave his approval." Genta said before shoving an apple into Mai's arm. "I'll lead you there; Haruka's my friend's sister."

They walked and soon the path spilt and they were walking along a red chrysanthemum field. Genta stared wearily at the field. "I wonder when the flowers would revert back to normal." He suddenly whispered. Naru perked up, did he hear wrong, what did Genta just say?

"Genta, were the flowers always red?" Mai asked before Naru could. Naru stared shocked. For the first time, Mai's thought process was faster than his. He looked at the girl and found that her eyes were serious...

"Eh...no..." Genta said shocked by Mai's sudden question. "No, a few months back, the flowers were yellow; they only started to change in colour early last month, then two weeks back they turned completely red."

"Now that you reminded me, when the gas incident happened the yellow flowers then also turned red...a few days before the gas explosion." He said.

Naru pondered on this for a moment. He has heard of leaves changing colours but flowers were a whole different matter it was impossible. "Naru, are you alright?" Bou-san asked him. Naru reached into his pocket and pulled out the red chrysanthemum. Was it his imagination...or was the flower redder than yesterday or the day before.

"Well, that proves one thing..." Mai said suddenly, in front of him. The three guys were stunned when she spoke next. 'William was lying."

********************************************************************************************************************

"So Naru asked you to do this, huh..." John said to Yasuhara-san. The boy with the spectacles laughs nervously. "Eh, he did, but to tell you the truth I have no idea what I'm looking for." He said. John sighed. Well he got to admit, Naru was pretty vague in some of his instruction sometimes.

They were in the police head quarters digging up archives.

"For a small town, there are plenty of strange things happening around here." Yasuhara-san said and John nodded, noticing the pile Yasuhara-san had set aside.

"People going missing, ghost murder, people dying mysteriously, flowers changing colour, mysterious figures falling from the cliff, a strange fog, sightings of white fox during the night, mass disappearance... one unidentified body and look here, the dead rising from the graves." John said picking out that single file.

He shivered.

"Whatever the case, this town is hiding something." Yasuhara-san said. "After Mr Rei told us the folk story, I sensed something wrong."

"Why is that?" John asked the boy and waved the dust off some of the files. "I study the history of Japan John, I am an expert in folk tales and the ancient beliefs of Japan, you could call me an expert in Japanese cultural beliefs...well during my time studying in the university I have never come across such a folk tale." He said.

"It might not be a very popular folk tale." John said frowning.

Yasuhara-san shifted his glasses. "Yes, it might not be, but this Island Onna, is located on Okinawa, during that time Okinawa was ruled over by Ryuku, they were prosperous and were on good terms with china. Okinawa at that time weren't part of Japan, it was only in 1609 did it fall to Japan, through the Satsuma clan. Assuming that the story took place after that time, if it's real...then there was no such thing as an Empress mentioned in the story. There were also other things to speculate, the war lord, who was he...could it be Toyotomi Hideyoshi...he was the only war lord who conquered Okinawa and became emperor. No other war lord has visited Okinawa, and he did not disappear, he died of illness, he lived a great life and brought peace to the country, he ruled fairly, not like the war lord mentioned in the story."

"Maybe it's another..." John asked.

"Who? Which war lord was seen as a good leader but in reality was a bad one."

John rubbed his head, slightly confused. "This is a folk tale, Yasuhara..." John said, "People might have instilled their own versions into it."

"Exactly, if Naru tells us to take into account that the folk lore is true, then we have to take into account the actual facts of the story...that version Mr. Rei told us was not the real version of the story, the real one is somewhere hidden in this town itself."

"If we find that," John muttered, "We might get an idea of what's happening in this town."

"But where should we start..." John said he looked at the pile of files Yasuhara-san dug up and made a face. Yasuhara-san dusted his sleeves.

"The town's national archives." Yasuhara-san said. "The library."

***********************************************************************************************************

"Haruka," Genta called out. They had reached a neighborhood. There were wooden style Japanese houses here and the villagers were greeting Genta who called out to them in a friendly manner.

They now stood in front of a particularly big house. It had a neat little garden and a nice European like feel to it. "Ah, so cute!" Mai exclaimed when she saw the small fountain located in their garden. It was a few feet high and in the middle of its bowl like structure was a figure of a round bird, from its mouth water was shooting out into the white marble bowl.

"Mai, get moving." Naru said and she pouted.

"My, my, Genta-san." An old lady said appearing from inside the house. She opened the door wider and her smile vanished when she saw Naru and the gang.

"Who might you be?" she asked Naru and Naru raised his hand.

"Narumi Kazuya, my assistant Mai Taniyama and fellow exorcist, Houshou Takigawa." He greeted the old woman. "We are from Tokyo and are here to investigate the disappearing."

When the old woman heard that she tensed. "What do you want with Haruka?" she asked. Naru raised his eye brow. "Madam, we understand your concern but we are not here to harm her, all we want to do is talk to her."

"No." The old woman said. "She has disappeared for three days and now she has lost her memories, I would not let you disturb her."

"Madam, this is for the sake for the other children." Naru said.

"No."

"They are dying." Mai said suddenly, her fist was clenched and she was staring at the ground, her tears were starting again.

'Mai, what is wrong?" Genta asked.

"There are children dying, please, your daughter might be the only hope left to find the others."

Naru watches as the old woman's lower lips trembled. "Very well, but I have the right to ask you to leave." She said.

"Thank you, aunty." Genta said and the old woman smiled at the boy. "Please come in."

"Haruka," the old woman called out.

The little girl came silently, she walked like a ghost and the life in her eyes was gone.

"Haruka, sit here, I'll get you something hot to drink." The old woman said sadly and went to the kitchen.

"Haruka, its Genta do you remember me?" Genta asked the girl who turn to him slowly, she turned back to Naru and the gang and when she saw Mai, she pointed her finger to her. Naru frowned as words began to come out of her mouth. They were soft whispers, so soft but fast.

"...k...s...d..." the girl said.

"Haruka?" Genta said. The girl walked towards Mai, tears rolling down her eyes. She grabs onto Mai and starts to shake Mai. "Ri...ku..." the girl whispered. "Dead..."  
"Key..." she said. "Don't..."

"Trust..."

"Haruka!" Genta said, clutching on to the girl. She turned to Genta and fell to the ground fainting. Mai looked at the girl. "Riku?" she said. The lights in the house went dark all of a sudden. They gasped. Mai cried out, her injured feet burning intensely.

"Riku?" Mai said again, this time raps ran through the entire house, loud raps, sounds of people moving and shuffling their feet moved in and out around them. The light above them swung vigorously and shadows reflected on the wall.

Bou-san shouted some chants and the raps and figures stopped. There was silence and everyone was panting.

"Dead..." Haruka whispered, she raised her hand to the walls. Mai gulped, Genta gasped, Bou-san raised his hands ready to chant again. There on the walls were figures lined up in a row, they were all facing them.

For some reason...all of them looked like...

"Children." Mai whispered.

A sharp laughter of a girl's whipped around the house and then silenced.

Mai legs seize to hurt and she sank to her knees.

"That..." Genta said suddenly, "Was freaky."


	11. The kiss urgh, puke

What is this chapter about? Well, the title suggests all...

I in no way enjoyed writing this chapter last part, my sister wanted it in...I find it in all ways cheesy.

The vanishing fog

File 11#

The kiss

"She disappeared around there." The old woman explained. "Haruka, she disappeared in the fog, next to the cliff."

She pointed to the exact location where Haruka disappeared. "It was a terrible time." She whispered, 'I can only imagine what the other parents are going through right now."

"Well, thank you." Naru said and the old lady nodded before heading back to her house. "The cliff, huh..." Bou-san said before sighing. "This is getting more complicated than it needs to be." He whispered. That, Mai fully agrees.

"Trust, nobody, Mai, not even yourself." She remembered Naru telling her in her dream. That was a clue, she knew it was, but she can't figure out what it was. Then there were the writings on her leg. She had a head ache.

"Is something the matter, Mai?" Naru asked her and she shook her head a little stunned. "Naru, I don't think Hikaru's murderer is a ghost..." she said. "I don't think anything on this island...whatever is going on is..."

Naru raised his eyebrow and Mai turned away. "Well, it's nothing." She said, she looked over at the cliff. She wanted to go there; she really wanted to go to the cliff right now.

"Mai!' Naru's voice resounded in her head. Mai turned and she found herself engulfed in a fog, pure white fog. She gasped, where was she?

She looked down and found herself staring at crashing waves. She pulled back shocked. Why was she at the edge of the cliff? The sound of the waves crashed wildly below and Mai shivered, one more step and she would have died.

"Onee-chan, what are you doing here?' a voice sounded behind her and she turned. She found herself staring at a little boy. He had ruffled hair and a nice friendly smile. "Are you here to join us?" he asked. Mai stood up and followed the boy. He was surprisingly cold and his skin had an odd paled colour. He was a little too wet.

"Join us?" Mai asked. The boy turned grinning. "What are you talking about Onee-chan, it's your birthday party right, Yuki Onee-chan and your birthday."

"Oh." Mai said. "I'm sorry, I forgot."

The boy grinned, pulling her. "Your mother is home, you know, I asked her to come." The boy continued and Mai smiled. "Is that so Wataru?" She asked and the boy nodded. Mai felt joy swarming her heart. Her mother, her mother was back to see her and Yuki. Yuki must be overjoyed, her gentle, pure hearted sister.

She ran laughing, along with Wataru as they crossed the chrysanthemum fields and across the path. She saw figures in her house and Wataru stopped her. "Why are they here?" he seethes and Mai felt fear strike her heart.

There was her mother and her sister sitting on the ground. There were men and woman surrounding them all carrying weapons. "Witches!" they shouted. One of the men strikes her mother and Mai got up. Her mother cried out falling to the ground, Yuki began to cry. Mai cried out and ran towards the cruel mob. Wataru calling out behind her. "Don't go!" he shouted, "ONEE-CHAN!"

"Witches, our entire chicken stock died in the morning, were it you witch who places the curse on us!" the mob shouted and Yuki and her mother sobbed. Mai broke through the mob and stood in front of her mother and sister her hands outstretch. "Stop!" she shouted. "Don't hurt them!"

Murmurings went through the mob and angry voices rages. "Kill them!" one of the men shouted. Mai shouted and shouted until her voice grew hoarse. "We are not witches!' she shouted. Why were they always accusing her mother and her sister, why were they always abusing them? Why were this people always hurting them? Whywhwywhwywhwywhwywhwywhwywhywhwywhwywhy!

Men lunge out with a sharp knife and Mai leapt forward hitting him in his chest. He cried out and fell to the ground, the knife falling onto the path with a clank. "ERICO!" her mother cried out. Mai reaches for the knife and stood up only to gasp in pain. She looked down and her eyes filled with tears, blood was dripping down from her long kimono, a knife was firmly placed in her chest.

Angry cheers went up from the mob and Mai felt to the ground, her eyes watering. It was getting darker; it was getting colder...why...

"KILL THEM!" the villagers shouted. Mai felt pain, felt sadness but most of all felt absolutely anger. She saw Wataru who stood there stunned. "ONEE-chan!" he screamed and then there was silence.

"Mai! Mai!" a voice shouted above her, something soft touches her lips and she sat up coughing out water. She saw Naru standing above her, he was wet and Mai realises she was also wet. She heard Bou-san and Genta running and shouting at them. They were on a beach.

"What happened?" she asked Naru and realises her voice was hoarse.

"You fell off the cliff! You just walked towards the cliff and fell off!' Genta shouted when he came, he hugged Mai tightly. She coughed some more water and wiped her lips. Naru pulled Genta off her and snorted. "That was dangerous, what were you thinking..." he asked her and Mai realised he was slightly red.

"I fell off the cliff...wait...shouldn't I be dead then!"

She touches her lips and Bou-san started to snigger. Genta looked confused. Mai surges up and grabs Naru. "What the hell did you do!" she shouted. Naru raises his hand to her face. "Nothing." He said, turned and walked away. Mai began to shake. "NARUM I!" she shouted. Naru turned, a little red. "Can we go now; I need a cup of tea to wash down the salt."

Bou-san helped Mai up and Genta rounded her. 'Why did you jumped down the cliff..." he asked. Mai thought for a moment. Now, why did she...

She remembered an image of a boy, a screaming woman. Her head hurts. She touches her lips and for some reason, she remembered Naru.

"Erico." She whispered. The memories rushed back into her head and she winced, her eyes widened considerably. "Naru, I know the other twins name!' she shouted and Naru stopped. Bou-san grabs her.

"Erico!' she shouted.


	12. Lost and found

Enough of mysteries, let's get to solving them...hee hee hee

Let the roller coaster begin

The vanishing fog

File 12#

Lost and found

"Erico?" the policemen asked them and Mai nodded. "Did anything happen to a girl name Erico?" she asked again. The policemen seem to hesitate. "Genta, are you sure Mr Rei allowed them into the island investigations?" he asked the boy who nodded.

"But you are all so young."

Mai clenches her fist and sent it down on the table. "A little girl just died, can't you at least have some sense of urgency, and the murderer might still be out there!" she shouted at the policemen, who glared at her before sighing.

"Erico, huh, well, we might have a case here...but I don't think you'll find the information you're looking for."

He turned and headed towards the office. He came out 15 minutes later carrying a thin file. "Erico." He said and handed it to Mai. "Found her."

Mai grabs it and Naru snatches it from her. He pulled her out of the police station, Genta following her. Bou-san was waiting outside; when he saw them he waved at them. "So, was Mai's dream like powers correct again." He asked.

He saw the file and was astounded. "My god, Mai, what exactly are you." He asked. Genta was patting Mai's shoulder excitedly. "That was too cool." He said. "How exactly did you know the other girl's name?"

Mai laugh nervously and wipe her wet forehead.

Naru opened it. The file was quite old; its pages were yellow and dirty. The paper was slightly brittle to touch. "Hmm..." Bou-san said, reading the file.

"Erico Shimai, a 15 year old girl, her sister and mother found dead in their four room house. They were killed from stabbings by a small knife. The mother had a neck wound, the knife went through her main artery killing her, the sister had a wound to the eye, and the knife pierced the eye killing her instantly. Erico was stabbed in the heart, she died slowly. The killing methods were swift and didn't need a lot of strength. The murder weapon, a small kitchen knife was found in Erico's hand, she was clutching it tightly.

Witnesses said they saw Erico fighting with her sister that day; she was very angry and left the house. A neighbour, Minami-san, saw Erico arrive home at 6pm in the evening on the day of the murder. The mother arrived home at 6.30.

After a while the neighbour said that she had heard shouts and screams in the house itself. Other witnesses said that there was loud banging in the house itself. All activities seized during estimated time 7 to 7.30. We believed that Erico's sister and mother were killed by her at this time."

Bou-san closed the file. "Man, this is quite sad." He said. "I can't believe the murderer was the twin sister herself."

Mai grabs the file from Naru and continued to read.

"Upon questioning the other neighbours around the area, they believed that Erico had a motive to kill her family. Erico was described as a strange, quiet but menacing child. She played and killed crickets when she was 4 years old and some suspected that she had tortured a neighbour dog once, although she wasn't found to be guilty of that incident." Mai read. "Yuki and Erico were said to be quite close, the mother was said to be always working, the motive for Erico's murder might lie in her mother, and she might have hated her mother."

"It is concluded that Erico is the murderer, her fingerprints have been found on the knife handle itself, and witnesses have concluded that violence in the house indeed took place that night. Erico is thus the murderer in this incident."

"Look at the date, this happened 23 years ago." Genta said, looking at the file and the pictures. Mai shivered, she looked at the girl's face in the picture. It was Erico; there was no doubt about it. She had been Erico in the dream; she had experienced what Erico experienced.

"These file..." she whispered, "Its crap." She said. She took the file and handed it to Naru. She really felt like tearing it into too, she felt very angry, very angry. "Mai!" Bou-san called out to her and sighed following her. Genta did too.

Naru held the file and looked at it again. He scanned through it once more before snapping it shut. As he suspected, everything on this island was not what it seems.

***********************************************************************************************************************

"I have found it." Yasuhara-san announced during dinner, shocking the ghost team.

He shifted his glasses and nodded at John who got up and handed him a large dusty book. It was a thick hard cover book and dust was floating above it.

"Why do you have to bring such a dusty book when we are having our dinner?" Ayako complained. Yasuhara-san smiled. "Because I felt that this was highly important." He said. he scanned the room and Naru gave him permission, before picking a nice pinkish tuna sashimi and placing it in his mouth. Mai handed him tea and he took it drinking it before coughing.

The ghost team looked at him and as he stared into the tea cup. "Mai, what did you put in this..." he said. Mai turned away not answering. He wiped his lips before sipping a bit of water. Was it his imagination or did the tea just taste like Colgate.

He reached out for another sashimi when Yasuhara-san coughs lightly as he opened the thick covered book.

A note was on Naru's plate, he frowned and took it up, and it was Mai's hand writing.

"Perverts should clean their mouths before kissing other people." Naru raised his eye brow before crushing the note. He hid it in his pocket.

"The folk tale, the real version of it, I have found it." Yasuhara-san announced. He said it so lightly, that no one at the table took much notice at what he said. Yasuhara-san waved the pages of the hard covered book sending out more dusts.

"What is your problem?" Ayako said and Masako placed her kimono sleeve to her nose.

"John and I have found the real version of the folk tale." He said, smiling. There was a stunned silence.

"Continue." Naru's voice broke out. He had placed his chop sticks down and was now looking very seriously at Yasuhara-san.

"The real version of the story did that contain any war lords, or any beautiful woman. The events took place during Ryuku era, I do say, this book here is more than 200 years old." He said.

He flipped a few pages and pointed to some words. "I shall read the story aloud now."

"_There was once a farmer; he was a very humble and honest man. Nothing could make him greedy, nothing made him evil. He was gentle to everyone around him and the crops he grew were the most delicious out of all. He was good farmer, it was said that his hands possesses magical charms, anything that he touched would be purified. Legends of him travelled far and wide, across the wide mountains, the roaring rivers and soon the farmer was famous. They said he had magical healing hands, hands that healed and made everything bad well. _

_At that time there was a fox. She was unsatisfied with the attention the farmer was getting so she decided to kill him. She travelled from the far mountains down to the village itself. She hid in the shadows of the village, determined to sought out the farmer and kill him however she was caught in an animal trap and was wounded badly in the leg. Somehow she managed to escape but she didn't make it far, soon she collapses on the road. Afraid that she might be killed by the villages, she transforms herself into a beautiful lady._

_The fox badly injured fainted later on and when she came too she found herself in a hut. Her injured leg was bandaged. She realised she was still in human form. She touches her leg and realised that it was healed. She was intrigued and went out. She saw the farmer working diligently in the fields. Despite herself she fell in love with the kind man that helped her. When she showed herself to him, that she was actually a fox, he accepted her. _

_They married soon after and had kids, they led a happy life. The farmer and the fox lived happily until a certain day._

_The village soon fell into war. Warriors came and took over their lands, they killed and splurge. One day, some warriors headed towards the farmers house and confronted the farmer. The villages of the village saw this and went over to help the farmer; they protected him and his wife. They were unsuccessful. They all watched in horror as the warriors killed their beloved farmer and his children. As the warriors were preparing to kill them all, the fox turned back into a fox and killed all of the warriors in fury._

_The villages watched in awe and all bowed down to her._

'_I will reward you all.' She said to the villages. Red tears were flowing from her eyes. "You have tried your best to protect my husband that is more than enough." She said._

_She picked a yellow chrysanthemum, the flower her beloved husband had grew for her and her tears dripped on the flowers itself and they turned red. _

"_Whenever the danger comes the flowers will turn red, this is my warning to all of you, when danger is approaching, the flowers would turn red and you all must run, then you will not die." She said._

_Then she disappeared in a cloud of fog. From then on whenever the flowers turn red, the villagers will run to safety. The flowers were never wrong and have saved the villagers many times. The fox had protected them from many centuries...and will forever."_

The room was silent when Yasuhara-san had finished reading.

"Are you shock, probably so," Yasuhara-san said, shutting the book, before signalling to John who nodded. "As you can see the version of the folk story Mr Rei told us was different from the original version itself. So we did some re-search, how can the folk story change so greatly...we did a lot of asking and re-search, we spoke to Genta's father, the doctor that treated Mai's legs and many others, the folk story only started to change 23 years ago." John said.

"So you mean, that someone was spreading fake version of the folk tale..." Bou-san said, rubbing his head. Both Yasuhara-san and John nodded. "Who would do such a stupid thing?" Ayako said.

"23 years ago..." Naru said. He frowned and pulled out the Erico file Mai had taken from the police earlier on.

"23 years ago, the twins from this inn died, and 23 years ago the folk tale was changed." He said. "  
Isn't it too much of a coincidence."

"**Once you find the links, you find everything, in dire situation colours change for a reason." **Mai remembered Naru's words in her dreams and she gasped.

**lled out the Erico file Mai had taken from the police earlier on. ..."o."t the original version itself. so g, **

**.**

**rd covered **


	13. Boys, girls and Shamans title too long

Here is a clue for all you people out there dying to figure out the culprit of this story: remember the prologue : )

By the way, Shaman king is an anime, an action paced anime...well all they do is fight, fight some more and some more and some more, it goes on and on, you can skip ten episodes and they are still fighting. It was interesting, for a certain period of time, after a while the fighting just kinds of bores you out.

Yeah, he throws a punch, after 5 long episodes of talking.

Detective Conan, is another anime, the best of all times. Mysteries here and there, it's cool.

Enough rambling and on with the story...

Now who is the culprit...hee hee hee...

The vanishing fog

File 13#

Little boys and little girls and big scary shamans **lled out the Erico file Mai had taken from the police earlier on. ..."o."t the original version itself. so g, **

**.**

**rd covered **

_He was falling, he knew he was falling and yet he did not care. He was on the cliff before, he knew it, and somebody had pushed him. _

"_I'm falling." he whispered and before he could do anything, the crashing waves met him. it was cold and it stunned him. He crashed into the sea water and the salt and the cold met him. he sunk like a log, he didn't bother to swim._

_What was the use of living?_

_The girl he loved was dead. She was killed. He sunk below the depts. Of the ocean, the surface looking very far. Tears emerged from his eyes and he gasped, silent bubbles escaped his mouth. Sea water entered his lungs, he choked. _

_It cannot be. She cannot be dead. She was always smiling, she was always there. She was gentle, she was kind, she talked to him even when other rejects him. She cannot be dead. No! His arms failed in the water and he pushes them desperately, he wanted to see her. He wanted to see her._

_He broke the surface, gasping and choking. Another wave came and forced him under again. He cried out and tears rolled down his eyes. He was crying...underwater..._

"_No..." he whispered and he forces himself to swim to the surface again. He did. The air was sweet and the salty air stung his eyes. _

"_ERICO!" he shouted. "ERICO!" he shouted again. There was no answer. He cursed and swam in the frothy ocean. _

"_Nononononononononononoononononononono__________________________" _

_He thought. The image of Erico falling to the ground, knife in her chest struck him many, many times. Tears couldn't help but fall, he screamed. _

"_ERICO!" he shouted, one last time before disappearing into the ocean again._

_He turned and spotted a figure on the cliff. _

_He closed his eyes and clenches his fist, sinking down into the ocean again._

"_Mother..." he whispered, bubbles escaping his lips. "How could you."_

*******************************************************************************************************************

Mai sat outside the inn staring at the night sky. She was clutching to her injured leg, the pain was gone, but her leg was throbbing. "Erico." She whispered and the leg seized to throb. She clenches her fist. She knew she had solved the code Erico wanted her to solve.

The girl in the bathroom, the ghost girl who gave her the wound, was no other than Erico herself.

"You wanted me to know your name...am I right." she whispered. There was silence but Mai could fell her presence. It was a small faint one and it lingered beside her. Although there was no one there.

"What are you doing Mai?" a voice sounded behind her it startled her. She turned and found Masako. Mai winced, she remembered the kiss Naru gave her and looked at Masako. How would this girl react when she told her that news? She didn't want to know and kept quiet. She manages to hide a deep blush when Masako stared at her again.

How could that idiot do that to her! It was her first kiss, her bloody first kiss, why! Well, it was to save her, but what the hell! (Yeah, what the hell, why am I writing this, damm you stupid sister) (Let's skip this whole Mai and Naru fiasco...then again I can't, sigh.)

"Mai?" Masako said again, raising her eye brow. Great, Masako, make things harder for me well you. Mai thought.

"Nothing, just thinking." Mai said and stared at the ground.

"Mai, I want to tell you something." Masako said before she took a deep breath and let it out. She blushed when Mai stared at her stunned.

"I'm not telling you this because I want too...but because you seem to have the same powers as I do." She said and fidget with her fingers.

"Hikaru..." she started and Mai tensed. Mai grabs Masako shoulder, "How do you know her name?" she said to Masako and Masako pushes Mai away.

"Her spirit manifested before me on the day of her murder...and I don't know if I should say this, she was pointing at the Omi that Ayako had just exorcist and she was mouthing a few words."

"Shouldn't you be telling Naru this?" Mai told Masako and Masako fidgeted.

"She told me, 'Shaman king.' "Masako said. Mai stared at Masako stunned.

"Say that again." Mai said, before placing her two hands on her lips, trying hard not to laugh.

"She said, shaman king, ok!" Masako said. (For everybody out there, shaman king is an anime)

"Man, Masako, I didn't know you watch Shaman king." Mai said, rubbing her stomach.

"I don't," Masako said, turning serious, "therefore it might be a clue."

"I don't blame you for not telling, Naru." Mai said. "After all, what came out from your mouth sounded pretty stupid."

"I don't want to hear that from you." Masako said, "Anything that comes out from your mouth sounds stupid."

"Oh really," Mai said, getting angry and fairly irritated, "at least Naru kis-"

She stopped and shook her head and left Masako looking at her confused. "Naru, did what?' Masako said.

Mai smirked and trying to be cool faced Masako and said in English. "A secret makes an umman, an umman."

Masako stared at Mai with a mixture of annoyance and pity.

"That is quote is from detective Conan, and for your information, you pronounced 'woman' wrongly, it's not umman, its woman."

Mai blushed.

"Well, there goes your cool moment." Masako said.

Mai smirked, "So you do watch anime."

And Masako tensed.

************************************************************************************************************

"Masako and You want to go to the library together." Naru said and Mai nodded. He frowned and stared at the red head and black head.

"Well, let them go, anyway, they might find something useful." Bou-san said. Naru sighed, closing the Erico file he had in his hand. "Ok, but only for today." He said.

"Ayako and Bou-san would you head down to the police station and retrieve all the files where mystery things happen here." He told the two adults, they winced and nodded.

"Yasuhara-san and John, good work with yesterday, but could you go to the funeral home and ask them some questions that I have written down here."

Yasuhara-san and John nodded.

"Lin," Naru commanded and the tall, emotionless guy stood up.

"Where are you going?" Mai asked Naru. Naru looked at the red head and handed her the Erico file. "Mai, if you are hiding anything from me, please tell me." he said. He noticed the girl tensing but she smiled at him and didn't say anything. Naru felt a prickle of irritation. He wanted to grab her and shake her, but that would only make her hate him even more. He didn't want-

"Be safe." He told her and she nodded.

"Well, then, let's get to work." Yasuhara-san said and the ghost team nodded.

**************************************************************************************************************

_This village was a mess. They killed her, his precious person. This village was a mess. Parents killing their own children. This village was a mess, believing in superstitions and killing innocence. This village was a mess, always hiding the truth from the public. This village was a mess._

_He smirked as he drifted further down into the ocean._

_He would kill them, he would kill them all._

"_I will make it all alright." He whispered, "A kingdom for you and me." _

_As he sinks deeper into the ocean, he let out a breath._

"_Erico..."he whispered._

_He closed his eyes and everything was black._

_His name was-_

**********************************************************************************************************

"_**Shaman kings, little boys and little girls, come out to play, on the midnight field..."**_

"_**Shaman kings, little boys and little girls, danced in the red flower fields..."**_

"_**Shaman kings, little boys and little girls, I kill you all."**_

*******************************************************************************************************

What's going to happen in the next chapter? Get ready for a roller coaster ride. The calm before a storm!


	14. Libary, Police station, Funeral home

I will not stall anymore; let's just dive straight into the story shall we...

The vanishing fog

File 14#

Library, police station, funeral home

"So tell me again why are we going to the library?" Masako asked Mai. The energetic girl was walking quickly ahead of her. Mai turned and faced Masako and Masako felt a surge of irritation rush through her. What is with this girl? Masako had mixed feelings towards her. Mai grabs Masako. "We're going to find out more about this shaman king..." she said. Masako sighed before nodding.

"And what are we going to do when we find it?" She asked the red head who shrugged in reply. "We can keep it our little secret, or we can tell Naru."

Masako sighed. What an easy going girl...maybe that's why Masako was so irritated. "We got to get him." Mai whispered suddenly, shocking Masako. The girl had stopped in her tracks. "We got to get the murderer."

Masako placed her kimono on her nose and gave a tiny smile. "Well, let's get going then." She said. This girl, she was violent, a total tomboy, spoke rudely and most of the time irritated the hell out of Masako, but Masako can't say she hated her. No, she can't say that at all. Because when this girl gets serious, she really goes for it.

They walked some more and the library came into view.

Mai stopped and Masako raised her eye brow at Mai. "Somehow, I have a very bad feeling." Mai said.

Masako snorted. 'And has that ever stopped you." She said cynically. Mai grinned. "Well, never."

***********************************************************************************************************

"Old woman would you stop complaining and get to work." Bou-san sighed at the woman who was mumbling furiously in the old file room of the police office. Ayako turned and Bou-san winced when he saw the fury in her eyes.

"Look, my nails are chipped!" she shouted at him. "Why must we do this anyway!" she said. She shifted through the wooden shelves that housed the many old paper files of past cases that the police were involved before.

"For a small town like this there is sure a lot of cases." Bou-san whispered to himself as he grabs another file from the unsolved crime sections. Ayako opened a file, winced and handed it to Bou-san. Bou-san stared at the lady and found that the fury on her face had been replaced with a worried expression.

"Ayako what is wrong?" Bou-san asked the lady. He never thought he would ever say that and it left a strange after taste in his mouth.

"The Omi I exorcised, it was not something that appeared naturally," she said. Bou-san raised a questioning look at her.

"Didn't you say this," he said and mimicked her high pitch voice, "An Omi is cast by a very powerful exorcist, it is very dangerous."

Ayako glared at him and he raised both his hands. "Omi are sprits they are not human sprits but that of animals, and other god knows what sprits, they have one thing in common, they have no form and because of that that are able to be controlled easily...an Omi can appear naturally, it can manifest itself when it is close to evil feelings...so the controller of the Omi might not even know that he or she is controlling an Omi, that would explain the number of paranormal activities now, simply because of the increase of evil feelings in society today, do you get what I mean, little boy." She said. Bou-san tapped his fore head. "Most of it," he said before turning back to the shelf, "So why so worried, you already exorcised it."

Ayako sighed a deep sigh and she turned serious, "Because this Omi is not normal, unlike the rest of the Omi I faced today, this Omi is a human..." she said, "A human sprit...with no form."

"And how dangerous is that," Bou-san gulped. Ayako turned to face him, placing another file on his hand. "Let's just say, if a regular Omi is a butterfly, this Omi is a great white shark."

"We can all die." She whispered.

"Oh great," Bou-san said.

"Yes, what a lovely Island this is, right." a voice sounded behind them and the both of turned stunned.

"Isn't it," the man said, smiling.

******************************************************************************************************************

"Shaman king." Mai said picking a book from the shelf, "Found it." She shouted in the library. Masako walked quickly towards the red head and slapped her on the back. "What is your problem, this is a library for god sake!" she seethes and Mai smiled stupidly.

Mai placed the book on the table and she opened it. Masako peered at the book and caught the first few sentence of the book itself. "Shamans are people who treat illnesses or people who try to solve problems for their community by entering the spirit world. They exist mostly in tribes, the red Indians were one such tribes who believed in the powers of Shamans. Shamans can call on spirits on will or enter the spirit world in sprits; well that is just a definition any way. "

"Hmm..." Mai said, shutting the book. "A shaman, huh,' she said.

"That didn't explain much." Masako said disappointed. She took the book and slotted it back onto the shelf. She watches as the red head girl eyes widened in shocked and Masako stared horrified as the girl opened her mouth to exclaim. Before the girl did anything stupid, Masako walked two big steps towards the girl and stuffed her kimono sleeve across Mai's mouth. She glared at Mai and Mai nodded.

Mai grabs Masako and ran out of the library. "Shaman, shaman king, Masako do you know what it means!" she exclaimed Masako sighed, "No, if I did I would be screaming like you almost did back in the library."

"Shaman, it is the culprit, Hikaru was giving us the culprits name!" she shouted. "Everything that goes on, on this Island is because of this Shaman!"

Masako gasped. That would explain everything. Spirits, apparitions, curses, if the culprit was a Shaman and a very powerful one, he or she would be able to do everything that has been happening on this Island.

"I'm impressed, Mai." Masako said and Mai grinned.

Then Mai grinned disappeared from her face. "And that would mean another thing..." she said.

"What?" Mai asked the girl.

"A secret makes a woman, a woman." Mai said, smiling. Masako could have punched the girl right then.

"**Ghosts do not murder...only humans."**

Mai whispered, she smirked. What Naru said in her dreams, was right?

*********************************************************************************************************************

"Yasuhara-san and John, we are please to meet you." John said introducing Yasuhara-san and himself to the boss of the funeral parlour. The boss was an old man who had rough features, an almost balding head and one scarred eye.

"Who are you?" he rasped. His voice was rough but deep. "If you are not here because someone died, than please leave." He said. John laugh nervously, and was about to leave when Yasuhara-san stepped up and smiled.

"We are here to ask a few questions, would you just give us 5 minutes?" he said politely. The old man looked at Yasuhara-san and snorted. "I shall take that as a yes." Yasuhara-san said and open the note Naru gave him.

John observes the old man carefully, he seemed afraid of them somehow. His movements were short and jittery. "First, how are dead bodies prepared here?" Yasuhara-san said cheerfully and gave the old man one of his most dazzling smiles. John almost slapped his hand onto his forehead. Yasuhara-san, if you don't mind me saying this to you, right now, you look like an extreme sadist. John thought.

The old man snorted, "We wrapped them up, using those white cloths over there."

Yasuhara-san smiled widely and walked over to the white cloth. "Can I take one back home?"

The old man raised his eye brow. "Well, if you want to."

"Then second question," Yasuhara-san said, "How do you wrap them up?"

The old man eye brow twitched and he took a white cloth and signalled for Yasuhara-san to go over to him. He then wrapped Yasuhara-san's body with the white cloth and spun some tight sting around Yasuhara-san.

"That's how we do it boy; now if you will, can you please get out of my sight." He snorted.

'Wait!' Yasuhara-san said, struggling in the white cloth. "How long would a body start to decompose and...What gas is produce in the process?"

"20 days and gases would be nitrogen and carbon dioxide." The old man answered, before turning away. "Now if you will leave now..."

"Methane..." Yasuhara-san said suddenly, smiling. "Can Methane be found also?"

The old man turned and John noticed his eyes were sad, other than that, his face features were hard. "Eh, yes, methane too."

"Last question," Yasuhara-san said, this time he lowered his voice so that only the old man could hear. The old man's eyes widened and he stared at the both of them.

"That is absurd!' he shouted, "it cannot..."

Yasuhara-san had seized to smile and he was looking at the note Naru wrote carefully. He crushed it, pulled the white cloth of him.

"John," he said, "let's go back."

*******************************************************************************************************************

Naru stood on the red flower fields; he glared grimly at the soil. Lin appeared behind him with a shovel. "I am ready," he announced and Naru nodded. Lin stared at the ground where the red flowers grew in, raised his shovel and hit the soil hard.


	15. When cows fart, Methane is produced

Starting the roller coaster

The vanishing fog

File 15#

When cows fart, Methane is produced

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" a voice shouted from across the red flower fields. Lin stopped digging and turned. Naru sighed and placed his hand on his fore head. A policeman was waving his fist at them and he wasn't very happy.

"Great," Naru said and signalled for Lin to put down the shovel. The policeman came over and grabs Naru. Lin sensing this grabs the policeman and punched him to the ground.

"Great," Naru said again.

********************************************************************************************************

"Shaman....huh," Yasuhara-san said, clutching his chin. He took the white cloth the man gave him at the funeral home and handed it to Mai, who hesitated before taking it. "Well, that will explain everything, but now the problem is, who is this Shaman?" he asked and John came into the room with Bou-san and Ayako.

They both look paled for some reason and they were both smiling nervously. Mai noted that they only had one file in their hands. "Didn't Naru ask you to collect information?" Mai asked them and Bou-san nodded, setting the file on the table.

"We did and we have; now all we need is to wait for Naru and Lin."

"About that," John said suddenly, smiling nervously.

"They got arrested."

"WHAT!?"

*************************************************************************************************************

"This is the last time, alright,' the policeman told the bad tempered youth who stepped out of the police car with Lin. Naru snorted and tensed when he saw the laughing members of the ghost hunt team.

"Ok, ok enough," Masako said, although Naru noted that the usually serious and silent girl was giggling.

"So Naru why did you get arrested," Bou-san said, "Is it because you were digging happily like a child in the sand box in the children's playground."

Naru's eye brow twitched and he turned to the monk.

"There is a reason...for everything." He said and as he said this the team settled down and turned quiet. "Shall we go through the evidence you all found?" Naru asked, and the group nodded.

"First, Mai and Masako what have you found," Naru asked. They were all sitting on the Tatami matted floor of the inn, facing each other they begun to talk.

"We might have found the culprit who is doing all this, causing the disappearance, the killings everything." Mai said and she explained the fact she and Masako found in the library. After they were done, Naru had his hand to his chin and Mai could see that he was thinking deeply.

"For once Mai..." he said, "Good job."

Mai smiled at his praise than remembered the incident when he kissed her. She wiped the smile off her face and clenches her fist. Later, when this case is done, she would ask him why he did that. For one thing though, she did not like it.

"Next, Bou-san and Ayako," Naru said. The two looked at each other and both Monk and priestess produced a file. Naru raised his eye brow, "That's all?"

"A few back, a skeleton of a male man was found buried along the beaches of this area, it had decomposed quite a bit and his identity could not be identified." Ayako explained.

"What has that got to do with this case?" Masako sounded. Bou-san held out his hand. "Wait, we haven't gotten to the part yet."

"They searched the Island, trying to find the identity of this man, checked records and other stuff like that, but they could not find anything, so they checked the tourist booklet to see if they could find anyone who might be this skeleton...they found nothing." Bou-san continued, "When they looked at the skeleton they found a very weird marking on his ribs, there were black rounded spots on his chest, it was as if something burnt through his skin and killed him..."

"However nothing could burn through a human skin or flesh or skeleton like that for the matter without breaking the rib cage completely...nothing human, that is," Ayako sighed before continuing, "Unless it is an Omi."

'So..."

"Yes, 5 years ago when the body is found, strange things started to happen around the Island, 5 years ago teenagers age 15 to 17 started to disappear around the area, it wasn't sensational news as all the teenager wrote notes to their parents saying that they have run away from home...however, the notes itself were not written by them, police have found that all notes contained the same words and most of all the same hand writing, it was too late when they found that flaw, by then all the teenagers have already disappeared. Disappearance happens quite frequently after that, but they happened suddenly and only a few disappeared after some time...than it escalated this year, after the fire, this time mass disappearance. Well, that is what we know, now." Bou-san said.

"So after the body was found, disappearance started to happen," John said and the monk and priestess nodded. Mai thought for a moment.

"There is also something that happened 23 years ago," Ayako continued, "Here." She said handing Naru an article.

"Boy, who got thrown off a cliff by his own mother, could not be found anywhere." Naru read the head title. Mai stared at the picture of the boy and she felt her whole body tensing in fear. She stared at the boy and she wraps both of her arms tightly around her. "Wa-ta-ru." She whispered.

"Wataru, the boy who knew Erico!' she exclaimed.

Naru turned to stare at Mai and so did the rest of the team. "What?" He asked Mai, "Are you not telling us Mai?"

Mai hesitated before looking at the newspaper again.

"A had a dream when I fell from the cliff and Naru saved me," Mai stated, "In the dream I was Erico and I experienced her feelings and her thoughts, Wataru was a boy who knew Erico very well, it would seem that they were good friends and Erico liked the boy too, I think the boy liked her back too, however they were killed..."

As Mai said this she could feel body shaking, she was shaking from anger, from fear. She knew it, she didn't want to admit it but she knew it.

"They were killed, Erico, Yuki and their mother," Mai continued, she remembered the mob, she remembered the faces of the mob that attacked Erico, Yuki and their mother, and she remembered the faces of all the villagers in the village, she clenches her fist. "By the villagers...of this village."

There was a sharp silence as every member of the ghost hunt looked at her. "23 years ago, Erico, Yuki and her mother, they were killed by the villages 23 years ago, those lies about Erico in the police files; everything in them is a lie..." she whispered. "The villagers were just covering up what they did."

As she said these tears rolled down her eyes and she started to shiver again.

"Wait a minute Mai...that would mean..." John whispered and Naru shut the file Bou-san and Ayako gave him. He stared at the shovel Lin was still holding and he looked grimly around the room.

"Wataru is still alive and he wants revenge."

*************************************************************************************************************

"Where are you going, Naru?" Masako asked the teen who just 15 minutes ago walked out of the inn with another shovel. "You're not going to get yourself arrested again are you?" She asked. Naru did not answer her, instead signalled for Lin to follow him.

"Naru, what are you planning, you know for once could you just tell us." She said and Naru gave a huge sigh.

"I might be wrong about this, but I think it's worth finding out." He said to Masako who raised her eye brow. "Why do you need a shovel?" she asked.

"To dig," Yasuhara-san's voice sounded behind her.

Masako turned and found Yasuhara-san looking at Naru carefully. "I might have an idea, on where you should dig, during the first dig, you didn't find anything right." Yasuhara-san continued and Naru's eyes widened slightly.

"Here, this is the map where the fires supposedly started."

Lin perked up when he heard this. "You know." He said to the boy and Yasuhara-san shifted his glasses up his nose, he smiled. "My, I wonder if I do," he said. Naru gave a small smirk and Masako sighed. She had no clue what was going on and was glad the hot headed Mai wasn't here now; if she was here she would definitely shout,

"What the hell is going on?!"

Yes, just like that. Masako did a double take and found Mai standing behind them looking at the two boys. Oh bother, Masako thought. Naru sighed, "Nothing of importance, Mai." He said. Mai gave him a glare and Yasuhara-san smiled calmly before saying, "Methane, you do know what that is, right?" he asked the hot headed girl and she gave him a confused look.

"Yasuhara-san I beg you not to sprout any nonsense." Naru voice sounded this time sharp and clear, warning Yasuhara- san. Masako had no idea what was going on between the two boys.

"Aren't you going to look for that nonsense, Naru?" Yasuhara- san continued, "That nonsense buried beneath the red flower fields."

Upon saying that, something clicked in Masako and she gasped. "No!" she said, this time it was her turn to panic, "No, it can't be...the disappearance!" she exclaimed.

Naru glared at Yasuhara-san angrily. "I told you to keep your mouth shut!" he said and the boy with the spectacles took off his spectacles and glared back at Naru.

"What are you all talking about?" Mai exclaimed suddenly.

"When living things decompose..." John's voice sounded behind them, making them all jumps, "Methane is produced." John's eyes were serious and he looked very fearful.

"I don't get you John?" Mai said.

"Methane is highly flammable." John continued, "No wonder the fires started."

"Man, can somebody speak in clear understandable Japanese!' Mai shouted.

"We are standing on an Island of death." Masako spoke, silencing the hot headed girl.

'Everything is not what it seems to be." Naru whispered and he turned and walked, Lin following him.

*********************************************************************************

For your information, Methane is highly flammable, and when it is present in large amounts, it burns

Next chapter, 3 words to all ( prepare for action)


	16. Bodies, bodies, bodies

And now for the big news!!!!! The story will unfold right now!

The vanishing fog

File 16#

Bodies, bodies, bodies

Lin dig hard, he was sweating under the hot sun and he felt relatively tired, but he couldn't stop...Naru was watching him and Lin hated to disappoint his young master. He dug some more, it was a different plot f field that last time. The flowers here were redder.

"LIN-San!" a voice resounded off the fields and Lin saw his young master turn and for a few minutes caught a rare smile on his young master's lips. "Mai." Naru said, the smile disappearing. Lin turned and indeed he saw the red headed girl. She was standing at the edge of the field with a shovel and Masako, John and Bou-san was with her.

"We're helping you dig!" she shouted.

Lin almost smiled, finally somebody who actually helps. "Lin, make room for them." Naru told him and Lim obeyed, "Looks like we need to do more digging."

************************************************************************************************************

"So, something is bothering you, am I right Yasuhara-san..." Ayako asked the young boy who nodded. The boy unlike Naru was not cold hearted or expressionless, instead he was bright, warm and able to express himself pretty well, but like Naru, this guy had an amazing sense of intuition. They were smart.

"The funeral home's boss, something about him bothers me Ayako-san, I'm sorry for making you come along with me," he apologised.

This boy unlike Naru also had manners.

"It's alright, I don't mind." She answered him.

"I am really sorry." He said again.

"I really don't mind." She said. She would rather accompany him then go digging in some random flower field. She had no clue what was going on either anyway.

"_We are here for a reason..." _

For some reason, Ayako remembered the man's words from the police station.

"Ayako, we're here." Yasuhara-san said and Ayako nodded grimly.

The old man who Ayako concluded was the boss saw Yasuhara-san and was extremely irritated. "Why are you here, again!" he shouted at them. This time Yasuhara-san's smile disappeared from his face and he faced the old man.

"Hey, old man...that picture on the wall, it's your family right." he said. The old man snorted. "Yes and so what of it?'

'Is the boy at the corner you're-

*********************************************************************************************************************

Mai was digging a few meters away from the group. Naru had asked her to dig here. After 2 hours of digging she had created a very large hole and somehow she was proud of her work. She panted and stood up, soothing her cramped muscles.

This field was creepy somehow; everywhere she turned she was faced with red flowers. Red flowers that were yellow a few months ago. "Flowers are the warning," she whispered to herself remembering the folk tale. As the flowers turn redder, so did the danger. She didn't want to admit it but folk tales really did come true. It made her wonder if urban legends were based on reality too. She shook her head before continuing digging.

"Whatever the reason," she muttered, "I have no idea what I am digging for."

It was hot and she was sweating and for reason there was the sweet slight smell of something. The smell came frequently but disappeared when a sudden gush of wind came rolling in. To be digging in this lovely weather is a sin.

She sighed standing up straight again and wiped her sweat. She was Masako walking towards her. Mai squinted. Masako was a few meters ahead of her and she was edging closer. For some reason, she was walking funny. Her body swayed from side to side and her hair covered most of her face.

The shovel she was holding, she was dragging it on the ground.

"Masako, are alright?" Mai called out. Upon hearing her name the girl stopped. Mai raised her eye brow. "You better not be playing around, Masako!" Mai called out to the girl. Mai then went back to digging.

"Mai!" the sharp shrill voice of Bou-san sounded. Mai turned just in turn to see Masako. She was standing dementedly, her arms were raised and in her hands was the shovel. Mai cried out as Masako brought the shovel down hard. Mai blocked the impact with her own shovel. There was a loud clang as both shovels hit each other.

"Masako!" Mai shouted. The girl jumped back and Mai immediately jumped out of the hole she had dug. Why didn't she notice this before? Masako was walking funny, the way she turned, the way she walked, everything was twisted. Masako lifted her head and her hair lifted from her face to reveal a wide smirked. Mai winced as Masako lunches herself forward again, this time she swung hard and Mai jumped, the sharp edge of the shovel narrowly missing her by a few inches.

Masako started to laugh dementedly and croaky, raspy noises were coming out from her lips. Masako raised her shovel again and swung. Mai blocked it with her shovel but because of the force she was swung backwards. She hit the ground and pain erupted from her already injured leg. Shit, when did Masako got so strong.

Clang! Mai screamed as Masako swung her shovel down on Mai's arm. The sharp edge meeting Mai's supple flesh. Masako raised her shovel again, ready to bring it down on Mai's head. Mai closed her eyes.

"MAI!"

Mai opened her eyes and saw Naru standing in front of her. His shovel in the air, it was blocking Masako's shovel. "Run!' he shouted at her. Mai did not need telling twice, she stood up, stumbled and ran towards Bou-san.

"Lin!' Naru shouted and the tall Chinese man grabs Masako. A sweet melody escapes his lips and Masako dropped the shovel before slumping. Lin caught her as she fell to the ground. Bou-san caught Mai and slowly carried her towards Naru.

Mai was panting hard and clutching on to her injured arm. "What happened?" she asked. John, who was oblivious to what have happened, started to scream. They all ran towards John and found that he was outside his hole and was pointing into it.

"H...h..." he stammered.

Naru looked at him before looking into and he grimaced.

It was exactly as he thought they would find.

"Bodies," he whispered, "Human bodies."

They were buried under ground beneath the flower fields, each body wrapped neatly in a rotting white funeral cloth and each stacked on top one another. The smell of sweet rotting flesh meets Naru's nose.

"We found them," John whispered after regaining his composure. Bou-san had sunk to his knees in disbelief and Mai was shivering very badly. Lin and Naru stood above the hole staring grimly at the grisly sight of rotting human flesh and bodies.

"The people who disappeared."


	17. Pandora's box

Going to give you a clue for who the murderer actually is,

Going to give it to you

Already did : )

I will give it over the next few chapters also.

The vanishing fog

File 17#

Pandora's Box

"Yes, he is my son," the old man said to Yasuhara-san. The old owner of the funeral home bowed his head in submission and he sat down sighing very loudly. "I knew it, nothing can be kept hidden forever, I was hoping I could take this secret to my grave."

He looked up and stared at Yasuhara-san, this time he had a sad smile pasted on his lips. Yasuhara-san looked at him and Ayako was looking very confused. "What are you both talking about?" she asked them and Yasuhara turned to face her, he pointed to the picture the man had on his wall. "Wataru...the father of Wataru is this old man himself."

Ayako gasped and the old man snorted. "Is it that surprising?" he told them, "Everybody born in this world has a father, there is nothing to gasp about."

"It is if your wife killed your only son." Ayako responded and the old man winced. He looked at Ayako and he sighed deeply again. "My life is wasting away," he whispered, "I have enough of this nonsense...but I guess, I can't run away from it."

"Are you going to tell us everything that happened in this village?" Yasuhara-san said and the old man gave a wry smile. "Eh, I will," he responded, standing up and pouring some tea into two cups. "But that would be opening your own Pandora's Box."

**************************************************************************************************************************

"What the hell happened here?" William asked them when he saw the stacks of buried body.

It had been 1 hour since they found the bodies, not the police are combing the area trying to find more. "Murder," Naru announced, "Somebody been collecting people and killing them."

William sighed, "When would this madness ever end." He said and Naru glared at the man. "I think you know." He said and the man looked at Naru. "What do you mean?" he asked and Naru shrugged. "You just happen to look like a certain someone," Naru said and William seem to winced, he glared at Naru. "What do you mean?"

"Nothing," Naru said, "After all I have no proved."

"We found another child!' the police announced and Naru clenched his fist. Who could have done all these? Killed so many at such a short period of time. He squatted down to inspect the decomposing bodies and he winced. There were no apparent wounds anywhere but the bodies were rotting and they stank.

"I found a skeleton!" a man shouted and Naru stood up, he turned and found that a huge crowd of onlookers were standing at the edge of the field looking at them. He saw parents of the disappeared children, saw parents, and saw husbands and wives saw people. Some look hopeful, others lost, some were crying. Naru clenched his fist.

"The body count is 98!"

"This is not murder anymore," he whispered, "This is genocide."

**************************************************************************************************************

"Yuki, Erico and their mother Haru came to this town 37 years ago, back them people were very superstitious and prayed often. Every time the fields start to change colour, the villages would take it as a bad omen and they would find the cause of their bad omens." The old man spoke, "I remembered that day as if it was yesterday, both mother and daughters came into town with weird western looking clothing, the daughters were lively but their mother Haru wore nothing but black...back them they arrived at the wrong time, they arrived at the time when the flowers turned completely red. Bad stuff started to happen to the families who came in close contact with the twins and their mother and very soon the whole village knew them as witches."

The old man paused and sipped his tea. "I was entranced by Haru; she was a beautiful woman, more beautiful than any woman in this village. I watched her day and night and very soon I fell for her..." he whispered, "I committed adultery." He said, "I went behind the back of my wife and courted the woman."

Yasuhara-san watches as the old man tipped some more of the tea into his mouth.

"Back then Wataru was very close with one of the twin girls and he would often go to their house to play, he was the only child in that area who would go over to their house and the three children got along very well. Erico and Wataru the two played very rough and Yuki was like their mother, she controlled them when their games and pranks got too violent, the three complimented each other very well...but happy times wouldn't last...my wife found out about me cheating on her and she got very, very angry...Back then I did not know, that she was turning mad...I didn't know what she'll do..."

'Soon more and more bad things start to happen, people got hurt, chickens or live stocks got killed the last draw came when a child in the village drowned...that was when the villages decided to confront the witches, they wanted to teach them a lesson..."

"it was wrong for them to do so," he said, "After all the three woman had nothing to do with the bad things that were going on, the villages just needed something to blame...and then...it happened, they killed the three woman."

"My mental wife snapped when Wataru told her about what happened to Erico, she who could not forgive me threw him off the cliff to teach me a lesson...and that was that, we couldn't find him anymore."

The old man placed his tea cup down and he glared at both Ayako and Yasuhara-san. "That is all, now leave."

"Wait," Ayako said, "Could you give us the names of the villages who took part in this murder?"

The old man snorted and laughed cynically, "You can pretty much the whole village here took part in the attacks... not one of them was innocent."

Yasuhara-san winced before noticing something strange in the picture the old man had on his wall. "Old man there are two boys in the pictures, one is Wataru no doubt, the other one who also looks like Wataru...who is he?" he asked.

The old man snorted before taking another sip from his tea.

"His Wataru's-" the old man paused before reaching for his throat, he started to gagged and Yasuhara-san watched in horror as the old man started to scream, watched as the old man began to claw at his own throat and as blood spilled from mouth.

"G-g-g..." the old man croaked before falling face flat on the ground, his body stiffened a few times and his eyes rolled backward exposing the whites of his eyes. Ayako gave a blood curdling scream and Yasuhara-san clutches his mouth. He could feel his stomach content rising through his throat.

The old man was gone. He was dead. Yasuhara-san stared at the tea the old man last drank and went over to inspect it; he smelt the contents in the cup and drew back quickly. They had truly opened Pandora's Box...the old man was poisoned.

**********************************************************************************************************************

"**They found it, master." The man whispered to the old man who stood staring out of his window. He watches as the policemen scouted and dug the red fields, he watches as parents of vanished children cried and stumbled when the body of their child has been found and he smirked.**

"**I knew they would find it," he whispered. **

**He turned to face the man who stood at the door way, "Should we start the ritual now, William?"**

**The man smiled and nodded, "I think we should, Mr Rei," he said and the old man smiled.**

"**Now, let's start the party."**

"**Pandora's box, yes," William said and Mr Rei grinned, "Eh, yes, Pandora's box."**


	18. Go with the flow

Erico, is the second clue

The vanishing fog

File 18#

Go with the flow

It was like a dream, everything now was like a dream. A surreal reality, Mai didn't know how to react to it. She sat at the edge of the field staring at the excavation that was going on now. It was a gruesome sight; everywhere she turned she saw bodies, dead bodies, all rotting and decomposing. It wasn't a pretty sight. Bodies of the lost children were found piled together, they all seemed like they were crying, their faces forever frozen this way.

Mai felt like crying but for some reason her tears wouldn't come. Something ruffled her hair and she looked up to see Bou-san, he handed her a bottle of water and sat down beside her. "It's horrible, isn't it," he said to her, "Well, at least our job is done."

Mai did not answer to that instead took a sip of the water Bou-san had given her.

"How is Masako?" she asked the monk and the man smiled, "She's alright, more alright than you," he said and took her injured bandaged arm, "The doctor did a good job, maybe we should give him something to thank him, after all he bandaged your injured leg too."

Upon the mentioning of the doctor Mai stood up. Yes, there was something that bothered her. She remembered the first time she met the doctor...he was trying to tell them something. She clutched the water bottle tightly.

"Mai, where are you going?" Bou-san shouted after her as she took off.

Mai turned, "To the doctors!" she shouted.

****************************************************************************************************************************

It was evening and the team had assembled in the main control room in the inn, everyone except for Mai. Ayako sighed, that girl was always running off without telling anyone. Naru looked extremely pissed and Masako looked plain tired. Ayako sighed when Yasuhara-san spoke next.

"Naru, I think I might have found the culprit." He said and Naru sat up straight, "Go on," he said. The boy looked determined, determined to solve this case. Should she remind him that their main objective of finding the bodies is finish and that they should go home, there was no reason to stay here anymore.

Yasuhara-san produced a photo. Ayako winced; it was the photo that hung on the walls of the funeral house. She turned away, she didn't want to see it, it reminded her of bad memories. "See this Naru, this boy here is Wataru, doesn't he look familiar," Yasuhara-san stated. Naru took it and shook his head. "I don't see any resemblance," he said. Yasuhara-san shifted his glasses and spoke next.

"It's William, Naru, Wataru-san is William."

What!?

"Wait, Naru, it might not be-"Ayako said but Naru cut her off. He turned to Lin and the Chinese man nodded. Never before had Ayako seen the boy so angry before.

"Naru, calm down, it might not be him!" Bou-san said desperately but Naru ignored him and walked out of the inn. Ayako and Bou-san stared at each other.

"Well, shit!'

*****************************************************************************************************************************

"MAI!"

Mai turned and found Genta. He was covered in dirt and he looked like he had been crying. She understood his feelings, nobody likes to see their friends or neighbours dead. Genta caught up to her and he was panting.

"Are you alright?' he asked her and she nodded stiffly. She was not, nothing was right anymore. Genta looked at her before grabbing her hands. "Come," he said, pulling her. Mai shook his hands free and shook her head, "I want to see the doctor." She said. Genta paused before placing his hand on her fore head. "Are you alright, do you have a fever?" he asked.

"No, I just need to ask the doctor, something," she said, smiling slightly. Genta took her hand again, "Could you do it later, I have something important to show you!" he exclaimed and Mai had no choice but to follow him.

"What is it? Why do you have to show me?" Mai said. Genta was half pulling her and half running. He looked very excited, as if he had discovered something big.

"You know that day when you fell off the cliff and Naru saved you, I wondered why you didn't sink almost immediately into the ocean, because, if you fell from that height you would sink pretty fast and drown, but on that day you fell and when you hit the water you kinda float for a bit...that was when I thought maybe there was a strong current beneath the waves that can sweep things to safety." He said.

Mai did not get him. She should have paid more attention during geography lessons. They arrived at the cliff and Mai winced when she saw the crashing waves below. The salty breeze blew hard on their faces. Genta let go of Mai and produced an orange from his pocket. "Watch," he said. He dropped the orange down the cliff. Mai watches as the orange hit the surface of the water, there was a plop sound and then after a few seconds the orange surfaced.

"So?" Mai said, expecting something more. Genta smiled and pointed to the orange. Mai gasped, it was moving, and it was moving on the surface of the water fast. Genta grabs Mai's hand again and they started running.

"Guess where I found the orange?" he said. Mai shook her head, she had no clue.

Genta led her down the cliff and ran towards a forested area behind the cliff; there he led her down a path sloping downwards. The trees were thick here and it was hard to move, but Genta cut through them using his body, by the time they exited the thick forested area they were covered in leaves, mud and blood. Mai coughed and panted and Genta tapped her.

"There!" he shouted. Mai looked up and she saw a sparkling pool. She walked towards it, amazed.

"And, poof, there is my orange," he said. Mai found that he was right, the orange was there in the pool floating in the middle of the pond.

"How..." Mai whispered, stunned.

"I found that this pool led to the ocean..." Genta said, jumping into the pool. He swam towards the orange and took it before swimming back.

Mai helped him up the bank and he sat on the ground soaking wet.

"You're telling me, that if I jump off the cliff...I wouldn't die, the current would carry me here," Mai said, suddenly getting it. Genta nodded vigorously, smiling, "That would mean," Mai whispered, Genta nodded, the smile disappearing. He stood up, threw the orange up into the air and caught it. "That Wataru managed to survive...it's all because of this trick."

*****************************************************************************************************************************************

"WILLIAM!" Lin shouted banging on the main doors of the castle like house. Naru rubbed his temples before kicking the door. There was a loud thump and the doors opened with a creek, there behind the door was frail old Mr Rei and William. Naru glared at the both of them.

"Why did you do these things?" Naru whispered dangerously, and faced them. The two men glared at him and William gave a wry smile. "What are you talking about?" he asked.

Naru felt his anger surging through him. His blood was boiling.

"Naru, calm down," Lin said to him and Naru snapped. He raised his arm and grabs the collar of William's shirt. William stared at Naru still smiling. "What are you going to do?" he said. Naru shake violently. He had never felt such anger before. It was red hot and it burnt.

"How many did you kill?" Naru seethes and the man shrugged.

"I have no clue-"

"SHUT UP!" Naru shouted at him, his voice shocked Lin and himself.

"Naru, calm down." Lin said.

"How did the calm Narumi Kazuya turn to such a raving monster, huh?" Mr Rei said and Naru pushed William away. "You bastards, I would definitely turn you in, I would definitely let you suffer!" Naru said.

'Hey, wait, what are you talking about?" William said. Naru turned and slammed his fist into William's face. The impact shocked Naru and he backed away. Lin quickly stood in front of Naru. "I'm sorry." He told Mr Rei and William.

"NARU!" a voice shouted behind them.

Naru turned and found Bou-san and Ayako. "Oh my god, Bou-san, he hit him!" Ayako shouted at the monk who ran towards them.

'What did you just do?" Bou-san said to Naru, "Why are you acting like a kid?"

Now, Naru got angry again. "What are you saying, isn't he the one who killed everybody, isn't he Wataru!' Naru said with a controlled voice. Ayako and Bou-san looked at each other and sighed.

"I'm sorry, William and Mr Rei, but I think we have no choice but to tell this boy over here." Ayako said to the two men.

'if it will stop this little boy from hitting me then go ahead.' William said.

"Naru," Bou-san said, "Those two...are..."

"FBI agents."

**************************************************************************************************************

"This is bad," Mai said looking at the pool. "That would mean Wataru is still on this Island," she said and Genta nodded.

"We got to warn the others," Mai said about to turn when the pool started to bubble. There was a soft splash and Genta screamed, dropping his orange. Mai turned and she fell to her knees. There was something emerging from the pool itself.

It emerged finally, sending ripples of red across the pool's surface. Genta started to shiver and Mai turned away.

"Do...doctor!" Genta stammered.

There in the middle of the pool...was the body of the doctor itself.


	19. Twins

Naru, is the third clue

**AlexaTarot I'm sorry for making Naru react like that. But, he wouldn't be human if he didn't react like that, how you would feel if you found a person who killed everyone you love, or someone you couldn't save. How did you feel towards the genocide taking place in Rwanda or Hitler's extermination towards the Jews? Anger right. So I had to make Naru more human like, if he was calm and collected than he would be a very cold and heartless person. I don't think his like that. And thanks for your review.**

**And to all those who I cannot send a reply back too: thanks for the reviews **

**And enough with the explanation and on with the story**

FBI agents are really cool aren't they?

Personally I don't like them at all.

The vanishing fog

File 19#

Twins

"The cliff!" Mai shouted at Genta.

"What are you telling me, Mai?" Genta said. Mai could scream in frustration. She took a glance at the doctor's body before grabbing Genta and pulled him. "You said this pool is connected to the cliff that would mean that Wataru is still there on the cliff! He threw the doctor's body from the cliff and it landed up here!"

Genta gasped realising what Mai said. he stumbled and Mai caught him.

"What's wrong with you?" Mai said. He laughs nervously, "Sorry, I'm no good with dead bodies." He said. Mai gave him a small sad smile. "Nobody should be," she said and she took his hand and they ran...

Towards the cliff.

**********************************************************************************************************************

"FBI agents," Naru said and the two men nodded. Naru placed his finger on his forehead and turn to glare at both Bou-san and Ayako. The two adult winced. "That would explain the little information you had to offer me when you two visited the police station." He said. Bou-san laughs nervously.

"William visited us at the station; he explained everything to us, everything about this Island." Ayako said and Naru turned to William.

"I'm sorry," he apologised and William laughs before patting Naru's shoulder. "Well, it is good that you found the bodies, therefore your job is now over, leave everything to us now."

Naru shook his head. "We cannot do that," he said. "I think we deserve to know what is truly going on." Lin nodded in agreement and William sighed. "Look, just leave it to the FBI, now, alright; we just called you here because of the missing people."

"Curses," Naru said and William raised his eye brows. "Do you know Lin here can cast curses, pretty good ones too, you might go bald or you might die,"

Naru smirked.

"What are you implying little boy..." William said suddenly weary of Lin, the tall Chinese man was glaring at him and he gulped.

"Tell me the information, or you wouldn't live to see another day, big old man." Naru said smiling. William tensed.

"Hahaha," Mr Rei laughed. The old man on the wheel chair looked at the ghost hunt team and smiled. "Well, seems like we have no choice then."

**********************************************************************************************************************************

"Masako, are you feeling alright?" John asked the girl who had just regain consciences. The girl looked at him and her eyes widened, she begun to shiver and John knew that she was remembering the incidents.

"Masako, it's alright, you didn't kill Mai." He said.

Masako shook her head. "No...John it's not that," she said, shivering.

"Then what is it, Masako?" John asked. Masako looked up and grabs his arm. John felt shivers go down his spine when he looked into her eyes. "We are surrounded." She whispered. a cold gust of wind went around the room and John gulped. The lights above them flickered and then it went out.

The room was plunged into darkness.

"Masako?" John whispered. He gasped when he saw white mist escaping his mouth. The temperature in the room was dropping rapidly. He felt Masako's hand tightened on his.

"Masako?" John whispered and heard the girl whimper. He tensed, something was behind him. He could feel it, their presence. They were all around.

"Omi." Masako whispered.

***********************************************************************************************************************************

"Wataru is a very dangerous man," Mr Rei explained, he sipped his cup of tea before placing it on the table. "We have been searching for him for years and finally we were able to track him down to this Island."

"Dangerous? What do you mean?" Bou-san asked. Mr Rei looked at William and William nodded.

"Back in the Spain there was a small town, it a very secluded town but there were approximately 600 people who lived there. It was under the protection of the FBI; therefore many officers were deployed there to work undercover."

"Why was it under protection?" Naru asked and Mr Rei shook his head. "That is whole different matter and we cannot tell you."

"I'll respect that," Naru said sipping his tea.

"Anyway, three years ago, the people in the town were all vanished and we weren't able to find any of them..."

"Sounds familiar, right." William said. Naru placed the tea cup down and Ayako gasped.

"We found them, all the villagers in that town, placed in the catacombs of the church all of them dead...however, there was no wounds, they all just died like that."

"When we sent some bodies for an autopsy report we found black markings on their rib-cage, the doctors were surprised that their lungs and heart were burnt all the way through but their skin had no wound and their ribs weren't broken." Me Rei continued.

"Omi," Ayako whispered.

"Luckily on that night, a photographer escaped this and he managed to take some photos of the murderer..."

"It was Wataru," Lin said and the two FBI agents nodded.

"We were put in charge of the case and we tried tracking him, we thought we would finish this job hard, after all how hard is it to catch a guy who killed 600 people."

William sighed.

"We couldn't catch him, we couldn't even find him...it was only one year ago that we received information about this Island." Mr Rei said.

"What information?" Bou-san asked.

"The unidentified body of a male skeleton was dug up here, right, and on the skeleton's rib cage was the unmistakable black markings...the same black markings found on those 600 people." Mr Rei said. "We have a feeling...that Wataru was using the people in Spain as test subjects...we feel that he was preparing something bigger..."

"Killing everyone on this Island..." Naru whispered and the two men nodded.

Tensed silence followed after that and Bou-san broke the silence. "William, I just have one question to ask you...why do you look so much like Wataru."

William turned and smiled sadly at them.

"I was born on this Island, didn't you see my dead old man's family portrait, and I heard he was poisoned...no doubt that must be the work of Wataru, he probably wanted everyone to think I was the suspect."

"For the record, I would never kill my own family members, but if I ever had a chance to kill Wataru, I would," William said. "I would kill him."

"I am," William said and his gaze turned hard with anger, "Wataru's twin brother."

************************************************************************************************************************

"Impossible, he couldn't have escaped that fast!' Mai exclaimed and Genta fell to his knees panting. They stood below the cliff and Mai was astounded. There was no one there. Wataru had vanished into thin air.

"Shit!' Mai shouted, kicking the sand on the beach. She coughs as the sand stung her nose and eyes.

"Mai, we should report this incident to the police." Genta said. Mai clenches her fist.

Who the heck was Wataru!

Where the heck is he!

Genta gave a bug gasp behind her and Mai jumped. "What is it Genta?'

Genta stammered. "T...the...I...inn is...burning!" he exclaimed.

There blazing and lighting up the night sky with an eerie orange light was the blazing fiery red inn.


	20. Never mess with exorcists

Together, is the next clue

The vanishing fog

File 20#

Never mess with exorcists

"John gets down!" Masako shouted. John gave a gasp when Masako pushed him down on the floor. He felt Masako land on top of him then felt a sudden cold breeze sweep above him.

"We must get out of here, John, there are many of them!" Masako shouted. John winced as a sudden cold breeze past over his left arm. A stinging burning sensation ran through his skin and he panted. He stood up and found Masako coughing. She was clutching her chest. He saw white smoke rising from her chest and realised with horror that they were in danger.

"Masako, where are they?" he shouted at her. Masako stood up coughing.

"Everywhere, they are surrounding us, all black and human shaped, John beside you!" she shouted. John dodges and shivered when he saw a faint black shape crossed him. He reached into his shirt and pulled out the cross he always wore around his neck.

"In the name of Jesus, be gone!" he shouted. The shape seems to scream before vanishing. Masako raised her hand and some of the faint black shapes around her fell backwards.

"The door John, make your way to the door, we got to get out of here!" she shouted. She screamed and John watches in horror as another black shape past through her left shoulder. She fell to the ground and John once more raised his cross.

"In the name of Jesus be gone!" he shouted.

He ran over towards Masako and grabs her. "John..." Masako cried out weakly. John felt a sharp stinging sensation behind him and he screamed. He fell to the ground rolling in pain.

"Die...die...die...die...die...die...die...die...die...die...die...die...die...die..." he heard them whisper. John stumbled to his feet again. He clutched his injured back and with hands trembling raised his cross. Where were they? He could see them but only faintly. What are they? He turned panting loudly. They were everywhere, they were circling them. Their human shape bodies, twisting and turning in the dark.

"John, runaway..." Masako whispered. John clenched his fist and placed his cross back into his shirt and grab Masako. He felt pain in his legs and the stinging sensation in his chest. He cried out but managed to reach Masako. He grabs her.

"I'm not leaving you!" he shouted and opened the window. The cold night breeze rushed into the room and John felt the black figures rushing towards him. He screamed and with all the strength he could muster jumped out of the window with Masako. They landed on soft grass and bounced a few times.

John got up, stumbling before reaching for his cross again.

The black figures were in the room. Now how should he get rid of them?

"John!" Masako shouted, she stood up and threw him a box. John caught it and saw that it was a match box. He smiled.

John took out a match and lit it. He threw the match into the room.

"IN THE NAME OF JESUS BE GONE!" he shouted.

The match hit the Tatami mat and the fire spreads quickly. The smoke burnt and fire sprouted. John fell to the ground gasping loudly.

The black shapes were screaming in the beautiful orange light.

"Don't mess with us," John whispered before falling on the grass, laughing.

**************************************************************************************************************************

"That was very reckless!" Mai scolded the young priest who smiled gently at her. He winced as Mai dabbed antiseptic on his skin.

"Wait a moment, I'll ask my Dad to make some tea for us." Genta said. Mai sighed. "Honestly, why did you burn down the inn." She said. They were now in Genta's house. Mai had found John and Masako hurt and injured outside the burning inn.

"I told him too." Masako said, she winced and places her hand on her chest.

"It was going to kill us." She said.

"Well, you still shouldn't have burn down the inn!" Mai exclaimed. Masako glared at Mai. "Then what should we do, lay down and do nothing and get ourselves killed!" she shouted.

"Don't scream at me, I had to lug you and John here! Don't even get me started on how heavy you two were!" Mai shouted.

"Now, now, calm down." John said.

"CALM DOWN! Wataru is out there, he murdered so many and now his trying to kill us and you're telling us to CALM DOWN!" Mai shouted, "Are you right in your head!"

John winced and Masako slapped Mai's back hard. Mai fell to her knees. "I'm exhausted." She whispered, "I want to get out of here."

'Mai..." John whispered. Masako turned away and snorted. She raised the kimono to her nose.

"Here," Genta said arriving with the tea.

"What is wrong?" He asked when he noticed the tensed atmosphere.

"Nothing," John said, "Thank you, Genta."

Genta smiled and poured the tea. "Here, drink some; you all had a long night."

"It's my father's special tea." Genta said.

Mai stared at the boy before lying on the wall. Her heavy eyes closed and she fell into deep slumber...

"Mai!"

Mai opened her eyes and she found herself floating. She must be dreaming again. She turned and found that Naru was nowhere to be found. She frowned. This was rare; usually Naru would show up, smiling.

She heard the sound of the sea and found herself above the Island. The image of the Island vanished quickly and soon it was re-placed with that a small room. It was a small room, the wall was made out of wood and floor lined with Tatami mats. At the side of the room was a small little wooden table and on the table was a light bulb. The room smelt familiar and Mai realised that it smelt of anti-septic and medicines.

Mai felt her eyes tearing. This had to be the doctor's room. "I'm sorry," she whispered, "I'm sorry we couldn't save you."

The room faded and now she was standing below the cliff, from where she was standing she could see the doctor. He was talking to someone. For some reason, the watch Mai wore beeped and Mai looked at the time.

"4pm..." she said...that was 2 hours before she was going to set out for the doctors to see him. The doctor was now screaming, and although his words were faint Mai could hear him quite clearly.

"I know what you did, Wataru!"

Wataru!

"So? What are you going to do, kill me?"

"Wataru turn yourself in, or not I would do so myself!"

"Hahaha, what a joke, you're an old man and you're threatening me, are you out of your mind."

"Wataru! It's been 23 years, how long are you going to continue killing!"

There was silence and Mai strained to hear what they said.

"When Erico is returned to me," Wataru's voice sounded.

"That's absurd! The dead cannot come back to life, Wataru you are wasting your life away!"

"THEN WHY DID ALL OF YOU TAKE HER AWAY FROM ME! DO YOU UNDERSTNAD THE PAIN OF LOSING SOMEBODY YOU LOVE!" Wataru shouted.

"Wataru, turn yourself in, I check your medical records, it was hard, but with this evidence I could hand you over to the police quite easily, I am quite shock that you did all that for a dead woman."

"Hahaha, say that again old man."

"I would turn you in, if you don't, the evidence is enough to convict you."

"And who would you tell that too?" Wataru whispered and Mai tensed.

"What! What are you doing!" the doctor's voice rang out.

"I WILL MAKE EVERYONE IN THIS VILLAGE SUFFER! I WOULD BURN IT DOWN!"

"WATARU!"

Mai cried out as the doctor fell to the ground, clutching his chest, before falling off the cliff.

"Adios." Wataru whispered.

Mai strained her neck quickly to get a better view of Wataru but found that she could not see him at all. She cursed and looked at the doctor's body floating in the sea water. It was moving fast, towards the pond.

She clenches her fist and turned away. There was no way she could save him, he was already dead.

"Wataru, I'll definitely catch you." She whispered. Then something hit her hard, she looked at her watch and she looked back at the doctor's body. Could it be?

Medical evidence...revenge for Erico...the pool Genta and her found...could it be...

Mai shivered. No it couldn't be...there was no way...

"Trust no one, Mai even yourself," Naru's voice rang through her mind.

"Then who do I trust!" Mai had once shouted.

"Yourself."

Mai face hardened.

She found him...Wataru.

***************************************************************************************************************************

"Mai! Mai!"

Mai awake and found Genta staring down at her. He looked very worried. "What's the matter, Genta?" she asked.

"You were tossing and turning violently in your sleep, are you alright?"

Mai remembered her dream and she quickly phoned Naru. She cursed when Naru didn't pick up. He was busy with something, she suspected. So she phones Yasuhara-san.

"Yasuhara-san I need you to check something for me..."

"Mai?" Genta asked.

"Yes, I'm alright...but could you check something for me, I'll send you a message."

She placed the phone down and she smirked.

"Mai, what's the matter?" Genta asked.

"Genta, I'm sorry for troubling you but could you take me to the pond again, I think I might have found Wataru."

"Is that true?" Masako exclaimed, Mai and Genta both jumped.

"Eh, yes." Mai said and Genta smiled. "Mai, you're amazing, ok I'll take you there, I'll ask my Dad first." He said.

Mai smirked and Masako pulled on her sleeves. "I'll go with you." She said.

"What, no, Genta is there to protect me, and you're so small and frail I do not want you to get hurt."

Masako punched Mai in the arm and Mai winced. "Like I'll listen to the one with the injured arm and leg."

"I am going whether you allow me or not." She said stubbornly.

"Damm you." Mai whispered.

********************************************************************************************************************

Will Mai find Wataru, or will she, Masako and Genta be in big trouble.

What did Mai ask Yasuhara-san to do?

Find out in the next chapter and be prepared! Action and lots of blood in the next chapter.


	21. Wataru revealed

Alpha, is the last clue

The vanishing fog

File 21#

Wataru revealed

"Man, what's with all this shrubs!" Masako complained. She stumbled and Genta caught her. "Be careful." He told her and she waved him away. "I don't need help from you!" she said before walking away in a huff.

"She hates me, right, Mai." Genta said sadly and Mai laughs. Genta turned and saw Mai carrying a base ball bat. "Mai...you really think this Wataru would show up...huh?" he said and Mai nodded. "I have a strange feeling he would."

Genta smiled. "Well, if he does I would protect all of you."

"Yep," Mai said. Genta helped Mai crossed some vines and finally they reached the sparkling pool.

"This is surprising." Masako said, looking at the clear pool. "I see, so this is how he survived." Masako said.

"Yep, I found it," Genta said. Masako snorted.

"Don't get to proud of yourself." She said and Genta sighed. "I think she really hates me." Genta said and Mai shook her head. "Masako just does not know how to express herself to people." She said. Mai smirked when her phone vibrated and she took it up.

"Hello, ah, Yasuhara-san, did you find it..."

********************************************************************************************************************

"Mai, where are you now?" Yasuhara-san said to the girl on the other end. He was in the doctor's house and had just uncovered a very informative file. It was important. He read the contents and shock filled him.

"Mai, please get out of there, now, you are in danger!" he said to the phone.

"No, I want to draw him out, just tell me what you found." Mai said and Yasuhara-san clenched his fist. "Mai...Please, it is no use if you're dead."

"Yasuhara-san, I can take care of myself, besides, I'm not alone."

Yasuhara-san looked at the file and he sighed.

"The doctor was researching on plastic surgery, and he found out quite a bit of information...dangerous information, I suspect Wataru knew of this and killed the doctor off."

"I know that...so did Wataru undergo plastic surgery..." Mai's voice sounded. Yasuhara-san stared at the picture of the man on the file and he nodded. "Eh, yes, Mai...I'm afraid so."

"Mai, where are you right now, please don't do anything reckless!" Yasuhara-san said. he heard Mai laugh at the other end of the line.

"Don't worry Yasuhara-san, I'm at the pool with Genta and Masako."

"Mai! Mai what pool!"

He cursed and threw the phone on the floor. Mai had hung up. Shit! He took the phone up again and began to call Naru. Mai...be safe...he thought.

******************************************************************************************************************

"Masako, here." Mai said handing the girl the phone.

"What are we waiting for, Mai?" Genta asked. He blushed when he saw Mai take off her shirt and pants. "Mai!" Masako shouted as Mai leapt into the pool.

"Mai, what are you doing!?" Genta and Masako shouted together.

Mai ignored the both of them and dived. If her deduction was right, it was around here somewhere. The pool was dark and creepy. She remembered the dead body of the doctor and she winced. She banishes the thought from her head and swam deeper. She must find it...then everything would fall into place.

She gagged and resurfaced.

"What are you doing Mai?" Genta asked. Mai waved at him and dived again. She looked around and her eyes widened. There it was. It was faint...but Mai could see it...a string. She reached out and caught hold of it. Then she surfaced, gasping for air.

She got out of the water clutching the string and pulled the string hard. A rock of considerable size burst out of the water and landed on the bank. As she suspected, the string was attached to the rock.

"What in the world?' Genta whispered before blushing again when he saw Mai only in her underwear.

"Quickly get dressed." Masako seethes at Mai and Mai did so. She rubbed the water out of her eyes and turned to Genta. "Do you remember what time the doctor's body was found?" she asked him. Genta thought for a moment and answered. "I showed you this place during the evening...so probably around 6 pm." He said.

"That would mean that the doctor was murdered somewhere between 5.30 to 6 because it only takes the current 5 minutes to reach this place." Genta said. Mai nodded. "You are right, but you are also wrong."

"Mai...you are scaring me." Masako said, "You are sounding like Naru."

Mai grinned. "The doctor was not murdered at 5 or 6, he was murdered at 4pm today." She said.

"But...if he was then we would have seen the body when we got here." Genta said. Mai held out the string she held onto.

"Wataru killed the doctor at 4, ran here and found the doctor's body in the pond...then he tied a piece of heavy rock to a string. He then placed the rock on top of the doctor's body, therefore because of the heavy rock, the body sunk to the bottom of the pool...where we would not be able to see it." Mai explained.

"Then you, Genta showed me this place with the orange, remember you wanted to grab the orange so you dive into the pool...your leg must have accidently got untangled by the string and while you swam to the orange you accidently moved the string, moving the rock off the body...that was how the body of doctor re surfaced." Mai said.

Genta gasped, looking at the rock and the string.

'Mai, you really sound like Naru!" Masako said.

Mai grinned.

"Mai, you're amazing!" Genta shouted.

"So..." Mai said to Genta, "Was it an accident?"

"Huh?" Genta asked. Mai grabs her base ball bat.

"I'm asking you, Genta, did you entangle your own leg on the string by accident...or was it on purpose." She said.

Genta looked at her.

"What are you talking about, Mai? I don't get you. There was no way I could have done it on purpose, I didn't even know about this, until you told me." Genta said nervously.

"Mai..." Masako whispered.

"Oh, you couldn't have done it on purpose?" Mai said, "Then Genta could I ask you this question...how could you not feel the string that was untangled on your leg?"

Genta tensed. "Mai, you don't even know if the doctor was murdered at 4pm, where is the prove?" Genta said.

"The autopsy report shall prove when he died..."

"I don't understand, Mai, why are you accusing me all of a sudden." Genta whispered.

"Genta do you remember what you first told me when we met?" Mai asked.

"I asked you how old you were." Genta said.

"Yes, and I answered, if I was 34 what would you do...and you told me you would jump of the cliff." Mai said. Genta looked at Mai.

"I feel like killing you right now, Genta." Mai whispered, "I feel like making you jump off the cliff right now."

"Mai, what are you accusing him off?" Masako said to Mai confused.

"Yeah, Mai." Genta said.

Mai snorted, "Don't play dumb with me, Genta...no you're not Genta, you're not him at all." She whispered. Genta stared at her.

"Wataru," Mai whispered, raising the base ball bat.

"Mai, what are you saying!" Masako shouted, clutching on to Mai. Genta was staring at Mai before he broke out laughing.

"Mai, are you joking with me, how can I be Wataru...I'm a teenager, not some 34 year old man."

"Ara, am I wrong?" Mai said, "You killed the real Genta, then went for plastic surgery to look like him and took over him..."

"W...what!? That is ridiculous!" he said.

"Oh really, Yasuhara-san checked it out for me and I'm pretty sure he knows your true identity by now." Mai said. "The doctor found out...that why you killed him."

Genta glared at her and Masako edge closer to Mai.

"Don't fool with me, Mai, can you imagine me killing anybody."

"No...But that is why somebody told me not to trust myself..." She said. "Luckily I listened to him."

Genta placed his hand on his fore head.

"Prove it." He said, his voice was shaking. "How do you know that I am Wataru?"

"For one thing...Genta...how did you know about Wataru...you were never with us when we revealed that Wataru was the suspect...unless Genta you lived 23 years ago?" Mai said, smirking. Genta looked at Mai and a large wide smile appeared on his face. "So how come when we first came to this pool you said, 'That Wataru managed to survive...was all because of this trick.' "

"Eh, yes, you are pretty smart," Genta said, he sauntered towards the two girls and Mai raised the base ball bat. "I am Wataru." Genta said. "I am the one and only Wataru."

Genta smiled. "Ah~ah~ I was hoping we could all get along," he said, "but I guess...I have to kill you now."

************************************************************************************************************************

"Mai is not picking up her phone."Naru thought to himself. He places his hand phone into his pocket and looked at Mr Rei and William. "I'm sorry, but we need to get back to the inn, for a while."

"Ok, but please meet us here, don't do anything by yourself, Wataru is pretty dangerous." William said. Naru nodded, before pausing. His hand phone was vibrating. He took it up and found that Yasuhara-san was on the other end of the line.

"Yes," Naru answered and winced when Yasuhara-san screamed into the phone.

"Calm down," Naru scolded.

"No, there is no time for that, Mai and Masako are in deep trouble!"

Naru tensed. "What do you mean, Yasuhara-san?" Naru asked.

"Genta!" Yasuhara-san shouted, "He is Wataru and he is with Mai!"

***************************************************************************************************************

Hee hee hee

So do you get it?

Did you get my clues?

I shall tell you the answer to my clues.

Look at every first word at the start of the chapter starting from chapter 17

Going is the first word of chapter 17

Erico is the first word of chapter 18

Naru is the first word of chapter 19

Together is the first word of chapter 20

Alpha is the first word of this chapter.

Noticed the pattern? :)

Look at the first letter of each first word of the chapter.

And spell it out

**G**oing

**E**rico

**N**aru

**T**ogether

**A**lpha

What does it spell?

Genta, right, obviously.


	22. Exposed

There is only one way to describe this chapter

Mai is in deep shit.

The vanishing fog

File 22#

Exposed

"Don't come any closer!" Mai shouted at Wataru who was smirking and edging closer. Wataru paused when he saw the base ball bat and he smiled. "Oh, alright, I wouldn't." He said.

Mai didn't like the smirk on the man's face one bit. It was as if he already knew she wasn't going to win. Mai cursed herself for not bringing John along.

"Masako, go call Naru and the others." Mai ordered and the girl shook her head.

"No, why should I," she said.

"Masako!" Mai shouted and Masako turned stubborn. Well this was great. "Masako, please, I beg you."

Masako hesitated before running off. "You better be safe, I am warning you!" she shouted, her voice disappearing into the forest.

"Now what?" Wataru asked, there was a note of sarcasm in his voice.

"We wait," Mai said, "Until everybody gets here."

Wataru smirked, found a rock and sat down. "Mai, Mai, you never fail to amaze me," he said, "I shouldn't have underestimate you; I thought you were just a frail weak little girl." Mai aimed the base ball bat at him. Sweat was starting to sprout from her fore head.

"Why did you kill them...the children?" Mai asked, her voice shaking in controlled anger and Wataru started laughing. Mai slammed the base ball bat on the ground and Wataru glared at her. "Haven't you notice, detective-san, the children I killed all belonged to the villagers who killed my beloved Erico." He whispered and as he said this, he raised his left hand and looked at his watch.

"Well, it's about time." He said and he stood up.

"What the hell are you doing?" Mai shouted, waving the bat as he edge closer.

"I would make them suffer; I would make them suffer like how they make Erico suffer! They would all burn; I would burn this village to the ground! Then Erico and I would be happy! Don't you get it, I am doing this for Erico." He shouted.

Mai snorted and placed the bat in front of her. "Don't move another step, Wataru, when I'm with a base ball bat I'm a whole new different person." Mai said.

"You just have to ruin everything, do you," Wataru whispered dangerously, "Just a few more days and this village would be dead, gone, vanished and Erico would be avenged, then Erico would rest in peace." Wataru said.

"I'm doing all this for Erico," Wataru said, he smirked, "Because I love her."

Mai clenched her two hands around the handle of the base ball bat to keep herself from shivering in anger. She lowered her head and looked at the ground.

"Oui," She whispered, "Don't kid yourself." She told the man, the man with the face of the boy once named Genta.

"What did you say?" Wataru asked, "I couldn't hear you."

"I said don't kid yourself, you stinking bastard! You were never doing this for Erico! You were only doing it for yourself! Don't make your selfish reason sound so heroic!" She shouted, "Erico would never have wanted this!"

She looked up and found Wataru glaring at her. He then reached out and clutches his head. His eyes were widened and his smirk was getting bigger and bigger. "What do you mean by that?" he whispered trembling, "I was doing this for her...I was doing all this for her!" he screamed at Mai. 'NO! It was for yourself! From the very start it was you!" Mai shouted.

"SHUT UP!" Wataru roared and launched himself forward towards Mai. Mai tensed and raised the base ball bat swinging it. She hit Wataru in the arm and he fell to the ground. He rose again and rushed for her. Mai swung it again and this time hit him in the stomach hard. He cried out and fell to the ground, spitting out blood.

"I told you to stay still!" Mai shouted. Wataru stood up again and looked at his watch, he smirked. There was a mad glint in his eye and Mai didn't like it at all.

"Aren't you feeling a little tired, Mai?" Wataru spoke suddenly and Mai dropped her bat. She was getting dizzy and she didn't know why. She fell to the ground and heard Wataru laughing madly. "You shouldn't have drunk the tea I gave you." He said.

"Sleeping...powder." Mai whispered.

"And finally, for the final performance..." Wataru laughed, Mai winced and struggled to get up but Wataru slammed his booted foot into Mai's back. "And for the final performance, a blazing village, and dead villagers and for the last offering...Mai Taniyama-chan."

***************************************************************************************************************************

"_Why do they hate me, Wataru?" Erico asked the small village boy who was 2 years younger than her. The boy wore a white singlet and brown leather shorts. He had a cheeky smile, two pairs of small eyes and spiky black hair. _

"_Why do you say that, Erico, I don't hate you." The boy said and Erico blushed. The boy grabs her hand. "I'll show you something Erico, come." He said. Erico nodded and they both ran. They ran through a thick forest. Erico couldn't hear the sea anymore._

"_Wataru, where are we?" she asked. Wataru grinned. "Our secret base, here no one can hurt us, I'll protect you!" he said. Wataru said before blushing when Erico laughed._

_They neared a pool and Erico gasped._

"_It's beautiful!" she shouted. Wataru stood at the side grinning. "It's sparkling right." he said and Erico nodded._

"_You want to swim?" he asked. _

"_Ok." Erico said and Wataru grinned, he pulled Erico and they both jumped into the pool. The water was cold but refreshing and Erico laughed. She was happy. For the first time, she was happy. _

"_Erico..."_

_Erico turned and found Wataru grinning down at her._

"_I would protect you no matter what?" he said._

"_Eh, really?" Erico said and Wataru nodded. Erico smiled and kissed Wataru on the cheek. Wataru blushed. "Eh, EH!" he shouted. Erico stuck out her tongue and they both laughed._

_******************************************************************************************************************** (oh god so cheesy) ********************************_

"**ERICO!!!!!!!!" Wataru shouted. Erico laid on the ground, feeling the strength and the blood seeping out of her. She clutches her wound and tears fell from her eyes. She was dying. She was definitely dying. 'Erico!" **

**She heard Wataru screaming for her. She tried to get up but she couldn't the cold, it was getting to her. She was dying. "Wataru..." she whispered. No, why was this happening. It couldn't be. Tears rolled down her eyes. "Wataru," she whispered, "Run away."**

******************************************************************************************************************************

Here he was, at the edge of the pool. He coughed and gagged. A smile plastered on his face. He sat at the edge of the pool. He would get them! He had survived this for a reason. He would get them. He would get this whole village. He would kill all of them. Every single one of them! "Erico," he whispered, "I would get my revenge."

**************************************************************************************************************************

"Masako are you sure it's around here!" John asked her and she nodded. John followed the girl as they went deeper and deeper in this forest. John quickly moved the shrubs and trees away and then he gasped. They were at a clearing and in the middle was a pool.

"MAI!" Masako shouted and John turned, there was no body. Masako cried out and John jumped. He turned and found the girl pointing at the ground. "Mai's bat, oh my god, he got her!" Masako shouted, "And I told her to be safe!"

John clenched his fist. Mai was reckless, he knew that but he never thought she would be this reckless. "What do we do now?" Masako whispered. John turned and found that the girl was trying hard to keep calm. Then he spotted it.

"Masako, words, words underneath your feet."

Masako looked down and gasped. Sure enough there were written words there on the muddy ground. "It's Mai's hand writing." John said, noting the untidy scrawls.

"Burning-field-Naru in police car-"John read out.

"Great, Mai, truly great, write your words in code form!" Masako seethes. John raised his hand. He couldn't figure out the code. "Burning...-field...Naru in police car..." he whispered. He shook his head. He couldn't figure it out. So he flipped his hand phone out and called the only person who could figure out the code...

"Naru..." he said, "We might have found Mai."


	23. The code

Ah~ I don't care if it isn't realistic anymore,

I think this fight scene suck

Anyway, enjoy

The vanishing fog

File 23#

The code

"Repeat it again," Naru said. John repeated the code and Naru wrote it down, before shutting the hand phone. Naru stared at the code and he passed it to Lin. "It all makes sense," he heard William say to Mr Rei behind him, "Genta knew all the children, so the children trusted him, he must have led them away and killed them during the times when this Island is engulfed in a fog...the skeleton found here should be the real Genta's no doubt about that."

"There isn't time for that!" Ayako shouted at the both of them and they looked up nodding. "You're right," they said.

"Naru, have you figured it out!" Bou-san said, striding towards Naru and snatching the code from Naru's hands. He looked at it and turned to Naru. "Burning..." he heard the young boy whisper, he turned to Lin and the silent, Chinese men nodded. "There is no doubt about it." Lin whispered.

"What? What!" Ayako shouted at the both of them. "Don't just stand there looking like two fat headed dolls tell us." She said and Naru glared at her to silence her.

"Wataru...if I'm not wrong he wants to burn the whole town down." He said and the others gasped. "It's not surprising; the only way to get his revenge is to burn this whole town to the ground."

"When Lin and I went to dig at the first red chrysanthemum field, a policeman caught us and sent us to the police station...why did the policeman know where we were, that field was quite far away from the police station..."

Bou-san gasped and Ayako shook her head, "I don't understand." She said. Bou-san turned to her, "The policeman was informed, he was informed by Genta, Genta didn't want anyone to dig on that field!" he said and Naru nodded.

"You know how the fires started, right," Naru said to all of them, "The Methane released from the buried dead bodies underground managed to escape into the atmosphere, but they weren't able to spread very far because of the cold, foggy atmosphere of this island, when you gather huge clumps of Methane together and light it, you'll start a chain reaction, the fires would spread quickly...most likely underneath the red field Lin and I failed to dig...are the bodies of the remaining children we did not find..."

"And..." Ayako whispered, suddenly getting it.

"Wataru will start his bon fire, there." Naru concluded.

************************************************************************************************************************************

"Hey, hey, Mai, wake up."

Mai moaned and her eyes cracked open. Shock filled her and she sat up. She groaned, her injured arm and leg were throbbing in pain violently. She realised that she was bound by a thick rope and was laying on something moist and wet. She sat up and a scream escaped her lips. Below her were the rotting faces of the dead children.

Maggots were squirming in their half black faces, their face each wore horrified expressions, these expressions forever imprinted on their faces. Mai struggled t get up and managed to. She was in a deep pit and Mai somehow knew where she was.

"WATARU!" she screamed. A man's face appeared above the pit and he was smiling. Mai shivered. Those weren't the eyes of a human...those were the eyes of a monster. "Are you cosy down there, Mai?" he asked, in a polite gentlemen's tone. "I hope you are," he whispered. He disappeared from the opening of the hole and Mai struggled to undo the rope that bound her tightly together.

She winced when she stepped on something soft and squishy, it was also slippery. Mai closes her eyes. This cannot be happening? She would not die here! She would not allow Wataru to burn these bodies. She slipped and landed on a body. She winced and her eyes widened in shock as more bodies were thrown into the pit. She screamed again as they landed on her, some of their heads dropping off, others had their limbs fall off. Mai struggled again and managed to loosen the ropes a bit.

"Naru..." she whispered, tears starting. She couldn't get out of this pit. She couldn't. It was as if the children's bodies were restricting her to do so. She looked at the dead bodies and immerse sadness filled her.

"I'm sorry..." she whispered. "I'm sorry we couldn't save you."

A sound of mad laughter erupted above the pit and Mai clenches her fist. With all the strength she could muster she struggled against the rope that bound her. She twisted and squirmed amidst the dead bodies. She didn't care for the heads and limbs that fell on her. Didn't care about dead glassy eyes that stared at her, haunting her. Didn't care about the blacken horrified faces of Wataru's victims. All she did was squirm and struggled.

"WATARU!" she screamed, anger rushing into her. With one final tug, the rope that bound her broke and Mai fell on the dead bodies gasping. The pungent rotting smell of the bodies was getting to her. She pulled the rope off her and grabs the walls of the pit and was relieved to find that it was mud. It was easy to climb.

"Wataru," she shouted again, sinking her hands into the walls of the pit and begin to climb. Anger was giving her strength and this strength was carrying her forward.

She grabs the edges of the pit's opening and pulled herself up, quickly standing and glared at Wataru who was lifting another body. She clenches her fist and ran towards him. "WATARU!" she screamed and sends her fist crashing into his face. Wataru's eyes widened in shock as he fell to the ground, dropping the child's body. Mai was panting heavily, her fist bleeding from the impact. "How?" Wataru whispered, before standing up again.

"OMI!" he shouted. Mai looked up and saw many numerous black shaped figures. So these were the Omi Ayako, Masako and John fought.

"Get back into the pit, Mai, or not..."

"Or not, what, you'll kill me!" Mai shouted, "I already know that. Why don't you be more creative and try to come up with something new to do to me!" she shouted.

"Because, I am not afraid of you! I'm not afraid of your stinking Omi!" she shouted, clenching her fist again and running towards him. She stopped when she noticed Wataru smirking.

"Oh, you shouldn't be worrying about yourself now..." he said, he pointed to the edge of the field and she saw Naru, relief flooded her it almost made her knees weak, then she realise with horror that the Omi was not in front of her anymore.

"You..." Wataru whispered, "Should be worrying more, about your friends."

"NARU!" Mai shouted, "RUN!"

*****************************************************************************************************************************

"Brace yourselves!" Masako shouted and Naru winced in pain before stumbling. Lin caught him. Naru felt his chest and found that white smoke was appearing from his chest.

"Don't touch those things," Ayako warned, "They burn."

Masako covered her nose and John supported her. "I see them," she whispered, tears forming in her eyes, "The little children, suffering."

"No..." Ayako said and Masako nodded. Naru glanced at the two. "What is it?" he said.

"The Omi," Ayako whispered, "are the little children."

****************************************************************************************************************************

"Stop it, you sick bastard!" Mai shouted, running towards Wataru who dodge her easily. "You cannot beat me, it's simple." He said, "You were too late, now this village would burn."

Mai ran towards him again, this time he held out his hand and slapped her on her fore head. Mai stumbled back and realised he was behind her, he grabs her and twisted her arm. She winced and fell to the ground.

"You all might be experts in fighting with the supernatural, but you are not experts in dealing with humans." He whispered. "I intend to use that against you."

Mai struggled and Wataru slammed her onto the ground, Mai cried out in pain and he laughed. "I love it," he whispered, "the night is perfect, the weather is perfect, soon I would light the fires." He said.

"I'll meet you, Erico," he whispered.

*************************************************************************************************************************

"What is he telling her!?" Bou-san said before dodging another one of those black figures. He placed his fingers together and started to chant.

"There are too many of them!" Ayako shouted, she winced and clutched her shoulder that was smoking in white smoke now. "MAI!" Masako shouted and the team turned to look at the red head that was a distance away.

Bou-san opened in mouth in horror to let out a scream. Wataru had a curved knife raised above him and was about to plunged it into Mai's chest. "Mai!" Naru shouted and Lin-san placed his fingers to his mouth. There was a sharp whistle and white shapes appeared from the air, cutting across the black cloud of Omi.

"Run, run!" John shouted and they all ran towards Mai, Lin behind them leading his white Shiki. Wataru raised his knife and Naru let out a horrified cry as Wataru plunges the knife towards Mai. There was the defeating sound of metal hitting ground and Wataru started to laugh.

"Naru, NO!" Lin shouted.

Orange sparks was flying out of the boy's body, lighting him up in an unearthly red glow.

'What did you do?" he whispered, as he walked towards Wataru. The Omi that surrounded them disappeared in an instance, each screaming and turning into black smoke. Wataru noticed this and he fell back, shocked filled him and for the first time there was horror in his face, real horror.

"S...s...stays back!" he half stammered, half shouted. He held Mai up by the hair and raised a lighter.

"You stay there, or not I'll light up this place and burn everything!" he shouted. Naru glared at Wataru and he raised his hand. Wataru screamed as his hands started to turn, there was a crack as his wrist turned in a very twisted way. Blood erupted from his wrist and each bone cracked loudly. He dropped the fire lighter, screaming in pain.

"Let her go." Naru said, his voice sounded menacing. Wataru took Mai and held a knife to her throat. "STAY BACK!" he screamed. Naru launches himself forward and grabs Wataru's head. Wataru screamed and Naru smirked.

"Die." Naru whispered.

******************************************************************************************************************************

Is Mai dead? Will Naru kill? Will the author have enough brain cells left after writing the complicated ending? Ah, too tired to think.


	24. Fruitless

The scary people are the ones who don't get angry easily. Then those...are really scary.

So...did Mai die? And my sister forced me to add in a cheesy segment, so enjoy.

The vanishing fog

File 24#

Fruitless

"Die." Naru whispered and Wataru screamed. He had never seen anything so terrifying in his left. He screamed again as the boy squeezed his head. Pain was surging through him, a million volts was charging through him.

"Please, please..." he begged.

The pain it was rushing through his head, his vision was getting blurry. No, he didn't want to die! He cannot die! Revenge, his revenge!

With all his strength he pushed the boy's hand away and stumbled backwards and with his unbroken hand lifted the lighter. "Stay back, or I'll burn her, I'll burn everything!" he shouted. The boy glared at him and the man shivered. He had never felt such fear before, it struck him deep. It made him pathetically weak.

The boy, Narumi Kazuya, walked closer towards him, the orange light radiant and bright, burning and imprinting on his eyes. Wataru felt the wrist of his uninjured hand twisting, he screamed in pain as his wrist cracked and every last bone of his wrist broke off from his arm. His wrist dangled like a lifeless ragged doll on his arm. He dropped the lighter in pain.

Wataru felt tears rolling down his eyes.

"You are crying," the boy said to him, his voice cold, uncaring. "Pathetic," the boy whispered. The boy walked two wide steps forward and grabs Wataru's head and squeezed it tightly. "No, no, no, please, please, spare me!' he shouted. The boy snorted, "Why should I?" he said menacingly. The boy placed his face closed to Wataru. "You finally broke down," he whispered, "You would pay."

Wataru whimpered before screaming as pain wrecked him. Words and voices ran through his mind become vague, the noise kept right on buzzing, people were screaming, blood was sprouting, and Erico was being stabbed over and over again. His mother standing at the edge of the cliff moved back and forth, back and forth in his mind. His father sneering down at him, the villagers laughing viciously when they dumped Erico into the ocean. The noises the images, it wrecked through his brain. Wataru screamed and screamed, the pain was killing him. The noises were buzzing and buzzing continuously.

"Make it stop, Make it stop!" he screamed, he waved his tow useless hands around, trying to fling the boy's hand away from his head but no matter how hard he struggled the boy's grip just got harder.

Then he saw the faces, the faces of the countless people he had killed, the countless people he had turned into Omi's to do his bidding. They were all taller than him, spinning around him, running through him over and over again. The sky was red and fires burnt everywhere, there was a tall red wooden gate shaped in a shape of a Shinto shrine and the two women were staring at him, pulling him towards the opening of the red gate.

"To hell! To hell!" they screamed, "Bring him to hell!"

"No more!" Wataru screamed, clawing his head. He tried to call for his Omi to help him but they all just vanished. The boy's powers were too strong. "No! My revenge, my revenge for Erico!' he screamed.

"Now," he heard the boy whisper into his ear, softly but harshly, "Please die."

"This is revenge for Mai."

******************************************************************************************************************************

"Mai, Mai!"

Mai opened her eyes and found Naru staring down at her. "NARU!" she shouted grabbing him and realised that her hands went through him. The Naru that stood before her was smiling. Mai sighed, and then she remembered everything. She gasped and touched her stomach. She was sure...she was sure Wataru plunged the knife into her stomach.

"Naru...I'm I dead?" she whispered.

The Naru grew grim and he shook his head. "You cannot die, now, Mai." He said. Mai almost snorted.

'So you mean I can die later, but not now." She said.

"Mai!" this Naru said and Mai was stunned, he said it with so much strictness, she was sure it came from the real life Naru. "You cannot die, now, you cannot, you must not even if you feel tempted to do so, it is not your time yet." He said. He gripped her tightly and this time she could hold him. She felt warm all of a sudden.

'Look you are alive, alive and well." He said. Mai could feel tears sprouting from her eyes. "How many times must I go through this?" She whispered, "Naru, I cannot take it anymore, I cannot see people die before me anymore."

Naru gripped her hand tighter and he hugged her. "Mai, this is your duty, it is your and only yours, only you can do all of this, Mai, you can save many."

"Then what about myself!" she shouted, "Who would save me!"

Naru smiled and pointed to himself. "I would." He said and there was stunned silence.

The scene below her changed and this time she saw Genta. She shook her head, that was not the real Genta that was Wataru. He was screaming in pain and Mai realised in shock that Naru was holding him, using his powers.

"Mai, do you think revenge is really needed in this world?" Naru the dream asked her and she looked at Wataru. "I don't know, I really don't know."

Naru smiled and squeezed her hand tightly.

"You know the answer, Mai, it in here." He said touching her chest where her heart was. Mai looked at Naru and a small smile fitted on her lips.

"I'm guessing I'm the only one left..." she said.

"Yes," Naru said.

********************************************************************************************************************************

Bou-san watched in horror as the scene unfolded before him. Was that really Naru? Was his power that terrifying? The man was dying and all Bou-san could do was watch. He wanted to stop Naru but another part of him was holding him back. He looked at the lifeless body Ayako was cradling to her chest. The body of Mai and he felt anger rushed back into him.

"Kill him," he whispered.

Lin was trying hard to approach the boy but he was having no successful attempts and Masako, John and Yasuhara-san were standing there in awe and in shock, each not knowing what to do although Bou-san secretly felt that they all wanted Wataru to die.

Mai was gone, the wound Wataru gave her struck her stomach, and blood was flowing out. She was slowly slipping away; even now as he was looking at Naru unleash his full potential, when Ayako gave a shriek.

Bou-san turned and jumped back, almost falling to the ground. Mai had opened her eyes and she was staring at Naru.

'Mai!" the team exclaimed and Bou-san rushed forward to hug the reckless girl. She didn't utter a word and Bou-san noticed that she was in great pain.

"Don't worry, Mai, we would get you out of here, alive." He said. Mai shook her head and clasped her stomach. She wriggled out of Bou-san gripped. "Mai, don't, you'll get killed!" Bou-san shouted as she walked towards Naru. The girl walked slowly in small steps, she was sweating hard and it took her every effort for her to walk.

"Mai, oh bloody shit, Masako, John, Lin, help stop Naru!' Bou-san shouted. The three of them raced forward but a strong forced hit them backwards and they landed on the ground. Bou-san cursed, rubbing his head. What was that!? He looked up astounded as Mai made her way slowly but surely towards the raging youth.

She was the only one unaffected by the forces. "What power," Lin-san said, standing up amazed and for the first time Bou-san saw life in the Chinese man's eyes.

************************************************************************************************************************

"Revenge," Mai whispered as she struggled forward, Naru in her sight. Her vision blurred and she gripped on tighter to her wound. It pained her but she kept going forward. "Revenge," she whispered.

There was something important to it. She remembered her father teaching her about revenge. It was a long time ago but she remembered it vaguely. There was something important to it. Her father had told her so.

"What is revenge?" she whispered.

That sentence triggered an avalanche of memories.

"_Mai why do you always get into fights?" her mother chided her before wiping the dirt off her little girl's face. Mai pouted, rubbing her bloody scab that was beginning to bleed again and her bruise on her eye._

"_She's such a tomboy," Mai's mother told her father who had just come home from work. When he saw his little girl, a smile broke onto his face. His sat down on the living room chair and patted his lap. "Come here,' he said._

_Mai grinned and leapt onto her father's lap. Her father patted her and switched on the television. Her mother shook her head before going into the kitchen. "Now, Mai," her father said, "Why did you fight?"_

_Mai tensed and relaxed when she realised her father wasn't going to scold her. She swung her legs and an angry expression appeared on her face. "Kenta!" she said. It was a boy in her class, the biggest bully, and the stupidest too. "He bullied Rika-chan and pulled her hair and then he made her cry."_

_Her father chuckled, "So you punched him." he said. Mai smiled, "No, I used a base ball bat." _

"_Hmm..." her father said. "Did it hurt?" he asked her and Mai shook her head. "I missed him and he came after me," she said and her father placed his hand on her head._

"_You did it for your friend, but you hurt another," he said. "That is called revenge, Mai." He said. Mai shook her head._

'_I don't understand, what is revenge?" she asked._

"_Revenge is when you want to avenge someone by hurting another person who did hard to another." He told Mai. Mai pouted. "Isn't that a good thing?" She said. Mai's father shook his head.  
"Mai, revenge comes to nothing, once you hurt another to avenge something that is already wrong." He said, "Mai, remember this, revenge is only something done to satisfy yourself, it is done for yourself, it is based on selfish reasons. Revenge is only to hurt and there is nothing worse than revenge." He said._

"_Why?" Mai asked, becoming slightly guilty._

"_Because Mai revenge is..."_

"Naru..." Mai whispered. She grabs the boy shoulders and held it tight. The boy did not notice her and Mai realised that anger had gotten the better of him. She gripped him tighter and drew close to him. She gripped his hand that was over Wataru's head and she lifted it and Naru saw her. "Mai," His eyes widened in shock and he fell to the ground, the orange light disappearing.

Naru whispered, gripping onto her tightly, hugging her (puke).

"I got to kill him." he whispered to her, is voice filled with anger again. "I got to kill h-"

Mai placed her head on Naru's shoulder and said three words to him. "Revenge is fruitless." Naru backed away from Mai, then seeing her smile sadly, he smiled a small one and then his eyes rolled backwards and he fell to the ground.

Mai turned to face Wataru this time. He was staring blankly at the sky, tears rolling down his face, his mouth wide open. Like an empty shell facing the sky.

'That was a taste of your own medicine, Wataru." She said and Wataru turned to face her. Mai shivered, all life seemed to be drained out of Wataru's eyes. They were blank and glassy. He struggled forward and Mai struggled to get up. The man gripped something on the ground and raised it into the air.

Mai gasped. It was the lighter.

"No, you can't be planning too..." Mai shouted and the man gave a ghost of a smile. He placed the lighter on his shirt and lit it. Fire erupted and fire spread rapidly across his clothes.

"Adios." He said and stood up laughing as the fire spreads across his clothes.

Mai watched horrified.

"Oh no you don't!" a voice shouted from behind Wataru. There was a loud splash and Mai felt water hitting her. She blinked and rubbed the water out of her eyes.

Wataru was on the ground, the fire extinguished. There behind Wataru was William.

"You are not going to escape my dead brother, this time; revenge would not be served..." William said, "Justice is."

******************************************************************************************************************

Next chapter would be my last, then I'll start on a new ghost hunt fan-fic...I don't know what to call it, should I call it the whispering mountains, or the silent mountain, or maybe I should change the title here, I sense a repetition.

My first ghost hunt fic---the forbidden forest

My second-the vanishing fog

If I named my third one –the whispering mountain

Than I can call it ghost hunt in nature trilogy series


	25. Mai, Naru and lovely tea

And now for the last chapter! This would conclude everything! And now for the disclaimer

I DO NOT OWN GHOST HUNT, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, IF I DID THE SHOW WOULDN'T BE SUITABLE FOR KIDS

The vanishing fog

File 25#

Mai, Naru and lovely tea

William threw the bucket he had in his hand and quickly ran over to Mai. "What...why?" she asked the big man confused. The man saw her wound and patted her on her head. "Good job, but there is no time to explain anything right now."

He picked her up and Mai cried out. William inspected the wound and shook his head. He paused when he saw the other ghost hunt teammates running towards him. "There is not time, if we don't treat her now, she will die." He said. Mai felt like smiling.

Would she get to see her mother, her father?

"You cannot die, Mai!" a voice shouted at her and she hazily turned to the owner of the voice. It was a girl, with long black hair, she was standing a few feet away and she was urging Mai onward. "You cannot die." The girl said again.

"Erico," Mai whispered and a smiled appeared on her face and she slipped away into darkness.

Erico...she was always saving Mai, she was always there, she gave Mai clues, she gave Mai the code on the leg to tell her what was really happening in this town and now...she's telling Mai not to die. Mai clenches her fist. Well, if she said so, then Mai wouldn't.

**************************************************************************************************************************

"FBI!" Masako and John shouted in the hospital and were immediately silenced by a nurse who was passing by.

"Eh, yes," Bou-san said, "William and Mr Rei are both FBI officers."

Masako snorted and John's jaw dropped. "It is very surprising," he concluded and Masako nodded. "So you mean those two were after Wataru," John asked and Ayako nodded.

"Oh my god," John whispered, "We are lucky we are not dead."

"Yes, you youngsters are very lucky," William's voice sounded behind them and Masako and John jumped. He was covered in water and his white blouse covered in Mai's red blood. "Wataru was a dangerous man, one wrong move and all of you would be finished finalizar.'

"Finalizar?" Masako said.

"Oh, it's Spanish for finished." He said.

"We caught a dangerous criminal for you and all you can say to us is that?" Masako said, getting slightly irritated. William shook his head. "Wataru is a class one criminal, classified as one of the most dangerous man in the world, he alone managed to kill 600 people in one night, let me tell you that is no easy feat unless you are a monster.'

"How can you say that about your brother?" Bou-san asked, "Even though you hate him and all, you are still family."

"Eh, yes, that family was ruined years ago, all because of my father's mistake..." he turned to them, "I am glad that your family is not ruined." He said.

"Family?" Ayako said and William smiled. "Aren't you all family, I mean all of you ghost hunt team members?"

Masako snorted. "I'll rather be dead than call Mai my sister." She said and John laughed nervously.

"Family can be anything, girl, as long as you care about the other." He said and Masako blushed, hiding half her face in her kimono sleeves.

"Mai is fine, now," he said, "The doctor said she's out of the danger zone."

"Really!?" Masako shouted, shocking the people in the waiting lobby.

"I thought you said you'll rather die than call Mai your sister," Ayako teased. Masako waved her away. "What about Naru?" she asked. William smiled. "He is already in Mai's room."

"And," he said as they were about to leave for Mai's room. "Gracias."

"Gracias, what is that some type of grass?" Ayako said. Bou-san and Masako slapped their hand to their fore head.

"Its thanks, Ayako, thanks and only that."John said.

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_In Okinawa today, at an Island called Onna, a very dangerous criminal was nabbed by officials today at 4am in the morning. His name was Wataru Takiro, once born on the Island himself, Wataru went around killing and burying children from the village itself. He killed more than 100 and the numbers are still rising._

"_It is a horrific case," a police officer commented as they dug up more bodies in the unique red chrysanthemum fields of Onna alone. Wataru killed a fellow teenager, Genta Hatori, who was 15 years old at the time of the murder and took over his place, this allowed for him to hunt down small children and kill them. Wataru did his killings in the fog and after which he would bury them. _

_Wataru would be transferred to Japan today and then to American, where he would receive his trail, if found guilty, Wataru could face 700 years of life sentences under the American Law. If he was under the Japanese Law, he would face the death sentence. Officials are now discussing what to do with him._

_Wataru Takiro would be leaving Onna Island today at 6pm, if you have any enquiries or information about this case please contacts the Japanese Onna Police station at 99080._

***********************************************************************************************************************

"Mai," a voice sounded above her and Mai winced. She opened her eyes and bright light caused her to shut it again. She opened them slowly this time and found herself staring at Naru. She cried out in shock and sat up, only to wince and fall back on the bed again.

She felt Naru pat her fore head gently. "Careful," he said to her, "You're injured."

Mai narrowed her eyes and stared at Naru. "Are you really, Naru?" she asked, "Because the Naru I know never says caring words like that." Naru frowned at her and he shrugged. "Your right, I never do and he sat at the corner."

Mai smiled. "Hey, are you angry?" she said and Naru shook his head. Mai laughed. He was, even if he didn't showed it, Naru was sulking at the corner. "Thanks." She said and Naru peered up. He yawned and went towards her. "You were asleep for 2 days." He told her and she exclaimed. "Two days! Wait! What happened to Wataru!" she shouted. Naru patted her gently on the fore head again.

"You don't need to worry about that, William and Mr Rei have already taken care of him." Naru said.

Mai sighed in relief, she smiled. Erico...she could now rest in peace.

Mai looked at the boy and for some reason she blushed. She realised she was alone in the room and decided to pop the question.

"Naru...w...why...did...you...k...ki...kis...kiss me?" she asked. Naru twitched before turning around. 'That was CPR Mai, CPR, I had to save you and the only way to do it was through CPR.' He said. Mai pouted. "Then tell me earlier." She said. She signalled for Naru to come closer to her bed and Naru hesitated before going nearer. Mai rose and planted a soft kiss on his cheek.

Naru's eyes widened and he walked back. "That was pay back; I don't like people kissing me for no rhyme or reason."

Naru open his mouth and was about to say something but he shook his head.

"What are William and Mr Rei, anyway?" Mai asked, remembering the case.

"FBI," Naru said, before rubbing his cheeks hard.

"FBI! FBI!" Mai shouted.

"Yes, FBI," Naru said and continued to rubbed his cheek. Mai frowned. "No wonder I didn't like them at first," she said. "And what are you doing?" she asked Naru who was rubbing his cheek violently.

"Cleaning my cheek," he said, "I don't want it infected."

"Why you-!"

"I don't want to interrupt your alone time together, but can we come in." Bou-san's voice came from the door way.

Mai greeted them cheerfully as they entered the ward. Ayako hugged Mai tightly, Masako stood at the corner making snide remarks. John laughed along with Yasuhara and Lin stood quietly at the side, smiling a little. Bou-san rubbed Mai's head, "You reckless kid, don't make us worry so much." He said and Mai laughed.

"William was right," John whispered to Yasuhara-san, looking at the happy gathering, "We are family."

**************************************************************************************************************************

They were on a boat ride home and Mai was leaning on the railing, puking her guts out.

"Why are we here!" she shouted at Naru. "You said we could take an airplane back home!" she shouted.

"Money," was Naru simple reply. Mai moaned before puking again into the ocean. "Aw man," Mai groaned and Naru came up beside her. He held out a cup for her. "Tea?" he said. Mai glared at him. "I would kill you," she whispered, "I would really kill you!"

"Remember, Mai," Naru said, "Revenge is fruitless."

And he sipped his cup of tea.

Mai clenched her fist.

That stupid, tea stinking bastard!

***************************************************************************************************************

And that is that folks, hope you enjoyed it.

And for the next upcoming story, the whispering mountain.

I am seriously considering naming my three ghost hunt fan-fic, ghost hunt in Nature trilogy series,

Could somebody out there help me think of a better title?

And I shall concede to flamegirl5500 here's the preview of the series,

"For as long as I can remember stories were told of a red bird that settled on top of the mountain, its rage contained within the villagers settled in the mountain itself," the old priestess whispered.

"What is this curse about, get to the point already, old baba." Ayako said and the old priestess glared at her.

"You, who do not listen, will surely fall into the debts of hell."

Ayako winced, "Ok, I'll listen."

The old woman looked away. "For hundreds of years, our village has been cursed by an unknown force, no one in this village..." she whispered, "Can truly die."


	26. AN ADVERTISEMENT

Dear ghost hunt community who have been reading my ghost hunt fan fiction

I am sorry for the discontinuation of my story The Whispering Mountain, I will definitely continue it, do not worry, in fact after I am done with this first story of a series of mine I will continue the ghost hunt story.

I am writing another story, it is called **Aristocrat Puppets: The Man in the Mirror **

It is a horror/supernatural mystery/action story. It is a joint project between my friend and I. Her name is Narnia (not her real name) and she's a very good writer. We have been writing this story since the start of December last year and we have already written 5 chapter.

We have decided to post this story up in fiction press, a website very much like fan fiction, there you can post your own story.

This new story I am working on is a very huge project for me and my friend, it is the first time both of us have done something like this and we would like people to view it and give their support.

So without further ado, please go visit out story that would be published 2 days from now…or maybe even earlier. If you wanna see what is this all about, please visit this website, there you can view the story at an earlier date, but I'm warning you, your eyes might not be too hot after that.

.com/

Basically the story is like that:

Riddle is the elite school's joker, the cynical scholarship student whose laughing taunting face is nothing but a cold mask. Esme is the resident bad girl, the cream of New York elite but with a slightly disturbing and psychotic attitude to boot. Two girls. Two world. Only one thing can unite them: The Supernatural

Hey, a girl with a brain another girl with the brawn, a group of friends, two guys(girls like this

-__-) and the supernatural and well a whole lot of mystery, can you resist it?

Well I hope you all can review the story or at least view it.

Hehehe

Well, please read


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